Biodiversity Virtual e-Laboratory

Alex Hardisty, Coordinator

Who Am I?

Alex Hardisty Director of Informatics Projects Cardiff School of Computer Science and Informatics

My roles (as well as BioVeL Coordinator) LifeWatch Strategic Management (Tech. Architect) ENVRI Common operations of ESFRI Environmental

Infrastructures (Workpackage leader) CReATIVE-B Coordination of Research e-Infrastructures

Activities Toward an International Virtual Environment for Biodiversity (Workpackage leader)

Vision

A seamlessly connected environment ... Service Oriented Architecture and e-Infrastructure

that makes it easier for biodiversity scientists to carry out in-silico analysis of relevant biodiversity data and to pursue in-silico experimentation ... Virtual laboratory

based on composing / executing sequences of data manipulations and modelling tasks Workflows composed from services Taxonomy, Phylogenetics, Metagenomics, Niche

Modelling, Population modelling, Mapping, etc.

Value added

Lowering barriers to entry for biodiversity e-Scientists Range of robust biodiversity services deployed Useful packs of workflows for biodiversity research Easier user interfaces for creating & using workflows Specific Support Centre for help and training

Supporting science supporting EU biodiversity policy objectives CO2 sequestration, Invasive species, Ecosystem services

Steps to integration of biodiversity research assets

Fits in a portfolio of Euro-biodiversity informatics

Reputed NoEs ALTER-Net, EDIT, LTER-Europe, PESI, SCAR-MarBIN, etc.

Funded projects 4D4Life, Aquamaps, ArtDataBanken, BioDiversityWorld,

BioFresh, EuroMarine, Fauna Iberica, iMarine, i4Life, OpenBio, OpenPlantBio, ViBRANT, etc.

Important contribution to ESFRI LifeWatch

Global context GBIF, GSC Biodiversity WG, CReATIVE-B pending EU-US cooperation

The consortium (partners)

Partner Scientific Technical e-Inf. access

Cardiff University (CU) - Coordinator X X

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Institute IAIS (FhG IAIS) X

Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ecology and Botany (IEB) X X University of Amsterdam (UvA) Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics X X

National Research Council (CNR) Institute for Biomedical Technologies X

University of Gothenburg (UGOT) X X

Max Planck Society, MPI for Marine Microbiology (MPG) X X

Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA) X X Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity (NCB Naturalis) (replaces Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data (SMEBD))

X

University of Manchester (UNIMAN) X X

Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) X X

University of Eastern Finland (UEF) X X Free University of Berlin – Botanical Gardens and Botanical Museum (FUB-BGBM) X X

National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) X X

Stichting European Grid Initiative (EGI.eu) X X

Technology - myGrid

myExperiment Workflows

repository Social network

BioCatalogue Services catalogue

Taverna Workflow

environment

e-Infrastructures

What we need from e-Infrastructures

Execution of workflow on e-Infrastructure Tools as services so environments like Taverna can

access them Foundational services. We don’t want to do generic

stuff. Clear, open, industry standard interfaces. No dependencies on particular provider

Service scaling Capacity on-demand to support large scale analyses

Strong channels of communication to providers e.g., to get technical know-how for packaging

community services to be “e-Inf ready”

On fundamental model for e-Science

Our project depends on it. Two areas need greater attention:

1. Better engagement with industry, leading to wide availability and use of sustained standard products - is necessary to reach critical mass

2. Closing the gap between what this community is doing and what the computing services organisations in the HEIs and Research Institutes are doing for general research, teaching and learning support

Questions?