Here you can find out about the activities of all VRE projects and look at the Wiki pages for the individual projects. People can edit their own information and pages. To do this please register and then email Rob Allan at r.j.allan@dl.ac.uk requesting editorial rights.

This page contains:

- VRE Projects Overview table
- VRE Project Outputs table

VRE Projects Overview

Project Name	Lead Site	Aim	Target Community	Technologies Used	Standards Used	Web Link
CheshireVre	Liverpool	To identify and integrate a number of tools and technologies for the data grid and digital library communities which will support collaborative e-Research across institutions and domains using Sakai.	Digital Libraries	SakaiPortal and CheshireSoftware	JSR 168, JSR 170, possibly OKI
PoliticsVre	East Anglia	To develop a virtual research and research skills development environment, capable of expansion and of facilitating multiple participation in the rapidly evolving field of the history of political discourse.	History of political discourse 1500-1800	SakaiPortal, AccessGrid	JSR168, possibly WSRP	http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_political_discourse
GrowlVre	Cambridge	To build upon the existing prototype GROWL library to produce a truly lightweight extensible toolkit which complements other solutions.	Bio-informatics, Chemistry and Stats	WebServices, AccessGrid and SakaiPortal		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_growl
HumVre	Oxford	To build a VRE for the Humanities by investigating how Humanities research can benefit from ICT and by constructing demonstrators in specific fields.	Humanities			http://bvreh.humanities.ox.ac.uk/
EvieVre	Leeds	To test the integration and deployment of key existing software components within a portal framework.	Institutional VRE	BodingtonVKP		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_evie
ElviVre	Nottingham	To produce and demonstrate a practical framework for the effective deployment of a generic VRE.	Generic Research business process	SunGardSCT		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_elvi
AccessGridVre	Manchester	Extend the Access Grid's VRE infrastructure with new collaboration functionalities from the CoAKTinG project.	Generic collaboration	AccessGrid		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_access_grid
CsageVre	Manchester	To construct and use of semi-immersive stereoscopic facilities to create an increased level of ‘presence’ within the Access Grid environment and the recording of the performance, in the same format, within a framework playable by a larger community base as and when required.	Arts and Humanities	AccessGrid		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_sage
SilchesterVre	Reading	To develop a system to facilitate rapidly developing and iterative archaeological research by synchronising the three processes of gathering information, co-ordinating expertise, and managing the resulting body of data.	Silchester Roman Town	SakaiPortal		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_silchester
IsmeVre	Manchester	To develop and refine the experimental steering process, shared workspace and distributed visualisation into a VRE making them deployable by dispersed teams of instrument scientists, material scientists and engineers in a transparent and robust manner.	Materials Science	GridSphere and AccessGrid		http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_isme
SocSciVre	Cambridge	To provide and support the Sakai platform for large, distributed social sciences research projects. The focus is on activities to investigate the needs of the TLRP researchers and to evaluate the extent to which Sakai meets those needs.	Social Science, TLRP project	SakaiPortal, DSpace	Possibly WSRP	http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_sakai_edu_research
CoreVre	Southampton	To provide integrated computer support across the research and educational cycles, because these activities are intrinsically coupled as a part of the requirements of the surgeon’s Continuing Professional Development.	Orthopaedic Surgeons	Chandler	SOAP, WSDL/OWL, and JSR-168	http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_core
IugoVre	Bristol	To develop a proof of concept system to enable the integration of web-based content (and references to non web-based content), related to individual conferences and individual sessions within conferences, thus providing a means to provide far great benefit to the wider research community than is currently available from conference attendance.	Generic conference organisation		W3C, Metadata standards and ontologies/ vocabularies, WSDL, WSRP, JSR168 and OGSI, RSS	http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_iugo
SakaiPortalVre	Lancaster	To address the requirement for a single point of access to a comprehensive set of Grid and collaboration services in a VRE.	Generic collaboration and research tools	SakaiPortal and WebServices	WSRP, JSR168, Shibboleth	http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=vre_sakai_portal
IbVre	Oxford	To develop a VRE demonstrator to investigate the utility of existing collaborative frameworks to support the entire research process of a large-scale, international research consortium.	Integrative Biology	uPortal + OGCE	WSRP, JSR168, Shibboleth

VRE Project Outputs

Project Name	Main Outputs	Completed by mm/yy
SocSciVre	- Requirements document - DSpace integration and Weaverbird prototypes in Sakai v1.0 - Prototype functionality in Sakai v 1.0 - Report on existing and legacy work processes with collaboration models - Results of adoption of Sakai v2.0 collaboration tools with recommendations - Report on new work processes - Final report	02/05 03/05 09/05 09/05 03/06 09/06 12/06
PoliticsVre	- User requirements and gap analysis - Evaluation of Sakai and Access Grid within the humanities - Sakai development stage 1 - Access Grid development stage 1 - Populated VRE - AG pilot report - Evaluation of Sakai and Access Grid as a VRE platform - Sakai development stage 2 - 2006 Evaluation reports - Further VRE development - DIY pack - 2007 Evaluation reports - A consortium of HE institutions involved in the VRE	07/05 07/05 10/05 10/05 09/05 – 09/07 09/05 10/05 10/06 10/06 10/07 09/07 10/07 ongoing
SakaiPortalVre	- Annotated XML schema for describing a collaborative research session - XML schema, database and interfaces to be used in VRE tools as part of Sakai TPP interface - Shibboleth federation with project partners - Tools for generation of Grid credentials using Shibboleth trust fabric - Integration of PREMIS and management tools for role-based authorisation policies - JSF for generic portlet interacting with web services - Integrated delegation of rights based on identity - Generic interface for peer-to-peer tools based on Gnutella/JXTA - Comprehensive interface documentation - Integration of above tools into Sakai (search, collaboration/discussion, analysis, publication/documentation, training and awareness - Sakai Java stack for downloading the tools - User documentation - Online tutorials
GrowlVre	- Client and wrappers to existing VRE resources and services - Integration of SRB services into GROWL - Integration of NetSolve services into GROWL - Clients for National Grid Service - Clients for Condor resource pools - Investigation of new authentication and authorisation frameworks - Evaluation of GROWL for bioinformatics & recommendations - Evaluation of GROWL for chemistry and physics & recommendations - Evaluation of GROWL for social science stats analysis & recommendations - Web service wrappers to bioconductor.org - Extend GROWL client-side functionality to address workflow requirements - Integrate extended GROWL client-side functionality with existing C, Perl and R environments - Web service wrappers to chemistry applications - Web service wrappers to a selection of functionality of the SABRE package - Implemented GROWL generic Grid functionality in existing GUI interfaces, e.g. DL_POLY and R commander - Link GROWL interface to SRB - Build chemistry applications into simple workflow using GROWL library calls
IbVre	- User requirements document with use-cases - Reports on user acceptance - A set of component tools for incorporation into the VRE - Development and production environments with software tracking tools - Integrative Biology tools packaged in a VRE
HumVre	- A report on the findings from a survey of the use of ICT in Humanities projects at Oxford - A report analysing and identifying the needs of the research community - A report analysing and identifying existing VRE tools appropriate for deployment - 2-3 demonstrators - A formative report evaluating usability with overall recommendations
EvieVre	- A user requirements analysis report with recommendations - A system integration route map - A demonstrator system - A report on digital preservation requirements for VRE systems - An implemented JSR168 Portlet(s) for library services - A visual front-end to the resource discovery services - A report summarizing the applicability of FAST classification for classifying content - A taxonomy for use within EVIE - Simplified-sign-on mechanisms - Developed channel - Complete working system - User documentation	04/05 05/05 05/05 01/06 07/05 03/06 10/05 10/05 12/05 12/05 08/06 10/06
ElviVre	to be completed
AccessGridVre	- Voyager evaluation & development - CoAKTinG tools, Meeting Replay - User documentation
CheshireVre	- A digital library middleware for Sakai - Cheshire support for JSR168 portlet spec, JSR 170 content repository spec, and OKI digital repository API - A Multivalent browser interface for Sakai 2 - Electronic notebook - A requirements matrix for Humanities and Sciences - A system overview document - Reference implementations for e-Science and Humanities domains
CsageVre	- AG modules with immersive stereoscopic features - Recording and playback tools that can be used on any AG node - User report - A standard definition for stereoscopic AG streams - Storage of stereoscopic AG streams	03-08/05 09/05 11/05 11/05 09/05
CoreVre	- Stakeholder requirements spec - Report on Design of the SOA - Software for implementing the SOA - Report on the Design of Services - Software for the services - Project Report on Demonstrator	04/05 07/05 07/05 12/05 12/05 03/06
SilchesterVre	- User requirements document - Data entry and access program module - E-conferencing program module - Fully populated database - Interoperability program module	03/05 05/05 05/05 10/05 – 10/06 05/06
IsmeVre	- Assessment report on GridSphere or relevant tools - First VRE based around porting existing EBS toolkit - Extended VRE - User feedback report	02/05 08/05 06/06 10/06
IugoVre	- User and stakeholder needs analysis report - Review report of existing practices and technologies used in conference information management and dissemination - Review report of learning from previous and existing web-based information integration projects - Report of investigation of the feasibility and wider issues - Generic framework specification document - Proof of concept conference/academic event information integration system - Report covering proof of concept system design, evaluation and lessons learnt	06/05 08/05 08/05 12/05 06/06 06/06 06/06