Small Pieces Loosely Joined: Products of the ViBRANT Virtual Research Community

Virtual Biodiversity Research and Access Network for Taxonomy (ViBRANT) is a European Union funded project that supports the development of virtual research communities involved in biodiversity science.

 

In 2009, when ViBRANT was planned, the landscape of biodiversity informatics systems and software was highly fragmented. The FP7 funded ViBRANT project has played a significant role in reducing that fragmentation, by developing a robust network of compatible services that are integrated through the Scratchpad virtual research environment.

Scratchpads are a tool that allow individuals or groups to self-assemble around research topics of mutual interest and share their data in a structured and reusable form. Scratchpads are the coordination point for ViBRANT, helping to bring together a diverse network of biodiversity tools and connecting them to researchers in a unified way. Through this
network our goal was to shed light on the long tail of dark data being generated by biodiversity scientists, and make these data accessible and reusable to all.

Within this booklet you will find brief descriptions of the major products of the ViBRANT project and see how they are interlinked. Although the EU-funded phase of ViBRANT comes to an end in November 2013, all these products have been adopted by a host institution and have a sustainable future beyond the project. On behalf of the ViBRANT consortium, we hope that you will find something in here of direct
relevance to your own work.