In Earth Science terabytes of data are produced daily with vital information about our planet and its evolution. A number of non-resolved issues limit many scientists capability to fully exploit these data and properly share and preserve their research; in many cases they work in isolation with limited possibility to easily rely on collaboration with their colleagues. At the same time, the general public is generally unaware of findings in scientific research, due to the lack of mechanism to properly share information between the scientific world and the generic audience, including decision makers.
The EVER-EST project aims tackling these problems by developing a generic Virtual Research Environment (VRE) providing earth scientists with the means to manage both the data involved in their disciplines and the scientific methods applied in their observations and modelling. The EVER-EST VRE allows scientists to develop their research and to attribute their findings, validate and share them within the scientific community or the general public. EVER-EST leverages previous work results of several EU R&D projects on Earth Science data catalogue federation, access, search and retrieval, data processing and long-term preservation. Such data management capabilities have been augmented with models, techniques and tools necessary for the preservation of scientific methods and their implementation as scientific workflows, which are increasingly used in the Earth Science domain. Central to this approach is the concept of Research Objects (ROs) as semantically rich aggregations of data, methods and people in scientific investigations. ROs allow encapsulating scientific knowledge and provide a mechanism for preserving, sharing and discovering assets of reusable research. The EVER-EST VRE is the first RO-centric native infrastructure leveraging the notion of Research Objects and their application in observational rather than experimental disciplines. The project has followed a user-centric approach with four real use cases driving the implementation of the VRE. EVER-EST user communities range from bio-marine researchers (Sea Monitoring use case), to Common Foreign and Security Policy institutions (Land Monitoring for security use case), natural hazards forecasting systems (Natural Hazards use case), and disaster and risk management teams (Supersites use case). The resulting requirements for heterogeneous data management, preservation of data and related workflows and user experiences, data exploitation and other e-research services for communication, cross-validation, sharing of science products, have been addressed through the proposed EVEREST VRE solution which is now operational. The EVER-EST project has a duration of 36 months.
