New Tools for Geo-scientific Data Management in the Framework of the ITINERIS Project Leveraging D4Science e-Infrastructure Capabilities.

Gennaro S., Di Giuseppe P., Perrone E., Agostini S., Trumpy E., Assante M., Candela L., Pagano P., Procaccini M., Coro G., Provenzale A.

VREs  Data sharing  D4Science infrastructure 

Open Science is a cultural movement based on transparency, inclusion, research integrity, collaboration, and cooperative work, promoting an enhancing approach to science. Benefits are expected from this approach, although doing open science can entail a contrast with several barriers, including: (i) cultural factors (e.g., the fear of the loss of control of the datasets); (ii) cost-base factors; and (iii) disincentive factors (Assante et al., 2019; 2023). The effectiveness of the Open Science approach of a project can be enhanced by using the D4Science infrastructure. This infrastructure promotes collaboration and cooperative work with Virtual Research Environments (VREs). As part of the ITINERIS Project, a comprehensive Italian Research Infrastructures (RDIs) hub in the geoscientific and environmental fields is under development, in which teams with a high level of trans-disciplinarity are working on the development of thematic VREs for topics that includes: (i) Critical Zone (CZ) VRE; (ii) Aquatic Biomass services (BIOMASS) VRE; (iii) Crops, Plants and Pests services (CPP VRE); (iv) Essential Variables (EV VRE); (v) Aerosol-biosphere (AERO VRE); (vi) Carbon Cycle services (CARBON VRE); (vii) Indicators and Impacts of Climate Change (CLIMA VRE); (viii) Downstream Effects of Environmental Change (DOWNSTREAM VRE); (ix) Isotope Database (ISOTOPE VRE). VREs are based on the D4Science infrastructure, and their development is based on the needs of the scientific communities and the specific stakeholders identified by the researcher. VREs are new eScience facilities that address scientifically and socially relevant topics, especially through the sharing of information and data produced. Research data and results products following international standards are managed and shared with the members of the VREs. In this context, these D4Science enabled VREs will become tools supporting the entire spectrum of the research lifecycle. Specifically, for data collection (i) the Collaborative Storage Framework promotes teamwork among users and offers a collaborative space to share digital objects. For data analytics, (ii) the Analytics Engine Framework equips VREs with Cloud Computing Platforms. For data publishing, (iii) the Publishing Framework facilitates the dissemination of research outcomes by means of the Metadata Catalogue and the Spatial Data Catalogue, which help organise and make research results available to the broader scientific community. Moreover, VREs are planned with a modular structure with semantic services for data discovery, harmonization and interoperability, and will contribute to share workflows, procedures and analysis tools which could be applied to analyse new datasets by the members of the VRE. Data from multiple sources, analysis and modelling tools will be integrated into the VREs, allowing users to gain insights into the problems at hand and add their data and analysis methods to respond to the changing scientific and practical needs.

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