A collaboratory is a virtual research environment that enables researchers based in different locations to work together and share their knowledge and facilities, thus enriching and speeding up both national and international research. More and more researchers are choosing virtual forms of collaboration.
The SURFshare programme aims to come up with innovative tools to facilitate online collaboration. These new tools help researchers collect and organise research data, share sources of information, and describe and publish research results.
Outside the hard sciences, collaboratories are something relatively new in higher education. They are basically suitable, however, for all kinds of research, specifically including smaller and interdisciplinary fields, where they can provide an incentive by making it possible to pool knowledge and bring researchers together.
Projects
SURFshare initiated several projects in 2008 and 2009. Universities experimented with collaboratories.
• Hublab 2 - Toward successful implementation of the Liferay platform in historical research
• Tales of the Revolt Collaboratory - Sharing, Enhancing, and Disseminating Sources
• Virtual Knowledge Studio Collaboratory - Understanding Scholarly Collaboration in Practice
• Collaboratory for Evidence Based Critical Reviews
• TestweekLab
Video clips on Collaboratories
A series of video clips about collaboratories explains the added value of these web-based collaborative environments for researchers. The films are based on lessons learned in three different innovation projects carried out within the context of the SURFshare programme in 2009.
The overall promotional video has English subtitles.
Collaboratories: Connecting Researchers
In recent years, SURFfoundation and SURFnet have explored the possibilities with working with online collaboratories. The experience gained during a number of projects involving researchers – with a variety of systems and a number of disciplines – have been examined closely and have resulted in a final report.
The report Collaboratories: Connecting Researchers compares eight software systems, evaluates the experience gained in twelve Dutch projects, and gives an overview of international trends. The report provides a more solid basis for providing facilities for the research community. It offers insights into the selection, construction, and use of online research collaboratories.
More information and contact
For more information, contact John Doove on +31 (0)30 234 6600.