Collaborative Open Science platform for marine research
Blue-Cloud supports Open Science collaboration in the marine domain through a collaborative infrastructure designed for data exploration and sharing
Background
Blue-Cloud is a collaborative virtual environment to enhance FAIR principles and Open Science, federating multi-disciplinary data repositories, analytical tools, and computing facilities.
“We employed the Marine Environmental Indicators Virtual Lab for our Proof of Concept, but the other VLabs also sound interesting for future research.
The web-based platform provides access to 10+ million datasets from leading European Blue Data Infrastructures such as Copernicus, EMODnet, SeaDataNet, EurOBIS, ICOS together with analytical tools, and computing facilities to explore and demonstrate the potential of cloud-based Open Science and address ocean sustainability, UN Ocean Decade, and G7 Future of the Oceans objectives.
Virtual Labs
Virtual Labs are virtual environments where researchers can access, combine, and share quality data. They also enable to perform online analytics related to the marine environment and create new indicators by combining tools and algorithms.
Blue-cloud currently offers 5 five dedicated demonstrators, called Virtual Labs:
- Biodiversity → Zoo- and Phytoplankton EOV products
- Genomics → Plankton Genomics
- Environment → Marine Environmental Indicators
- Fisheries → Fish, a matter of scales
- Aquaculture → Aquaculture Monitor
Researchers can visit, run, and study them and use them as inspiration for building additional Virtual Labs through the facilities and services offered at the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment (VRE).
“We have used the thematic VLabs because we were interested in visualizing the gene clusters of selected metabolic pathways along with info about the environmental variables.”
Key features
More than 10 million datasets
Data from Copernicus, EMODnet, SeaDataNet, Euro-Argo, ENA, EcoTaxa, SOCAT, ICOS, EurOBIS, and the list is growing!
Easy access with your existing credentials
Access the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment via the EOSC federated identity, and the Data Discovery & Access Service with MarineID.
Exploit the existing Virtual Labs, and create your own!
Thematic Virtual Labs allow users to perform their collaborative research, and new dedicated Labs can be developed.
Benefits of WEkEO for Blue-Cloud
The exploitation of WEkEO helps enhance the quality of the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment and VirtualLabs in different ways, including:
- Harmonised online access to the full WEkEO product catalogue
- Updates of products notified and promptly available for online access
- Integrated cost-effective data access and processing system
- Application scalability sustained by the WEkEO evolution
Contact us to know more about Blue-Cloud.
