Research IT

Developing Virtual Laboratories

Two members of Research IT are co-authors on a recently published paper in BMC Ecology. The paper describes the development and implementation of "BioVeL" - a virtual laboratory for data analysis and modelling in biodiversity science and ecology.

Robert Haines and Donal Fellows from Research IT worked with Professor Carole Goble and her e-Science Lab in the School of Computer Science to develop and improve over 60 Web services and deploy these tools into an easy-to-use and accessible 'virtual laboratory' online.

BioVeL includes functions for accessing and analysing data through curated Web Services; for performing complex in silico analysis through exposure of R programs, Taverna workflows, and batch processing functions; for on-line collaboration through sharing of workflows and workflow runs; for experiment documentation through reproducibility and repeatability; and for computational support via seamless connections to supporting computing infrastructures.

If you think that your research project could benefit from Research IT expertise, get in touch for a consultation.