Virtual Research Environment, Science Gateways, Virtual Laboratories. What's the difference?

An active debate is underway, mainly among some of the major players in the field of Virtual Research Environments, including VRE4EIC and other European project teams. The discussion focuses on defining the commonalities and differences among Virtual Research Environments (VREs), Science Gateways (SGs) as used in North America, and Virtual Laboratories (VLs) as used in Australia_._

There is broad agreement on the definition of a VRE: it usually provides not only access to ICT services, data, software components, and equipment, but also a collaborative working environment for cooperation; it supports the research lifecycle from idea to publication, as well as research management and administration.

However, positions differ with respect to SGs and VLs, which are sometimes treated as synonyms and sometimes as distinct concepts: SGs are mainly portals for accessing data, while VLs provide collections of datasets, software, and computing resources that researchers can use to construct their own working environment.

[Originally published at https://www.epos-ip.org/top-tips-virtual-research-environments-science-gateways-and-virtual-laboratories]

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