Networking Resources for Research and Scientific Education in BW-eLabs

The major aim of the BW-eLabs architecture (networked virtual and remote labs in Baden-Württemberg) is the expansion of access to heterogeneous experimental resources (remote as well as virtual or hybrid) for cooperative execution of experiments in natural sciences and engineering as well as the reuse of raw data and experiments for research and education purposes. Thus, three major tasks take center stage for the BW-eLabs portal: 1st, the creation of efficient possibilities of external access to local experimental surroundings, 2nd, the guarantee of transparency and reproducibility of experiments, and 3rd, the promotion of cooperation and collaboration within the scientific community in experiment-driven high-technology fields. Nanotechnology and robotics serve as demonstrator disciplines because especially in these cost intensive areas access to experimental equipment is an important prerequisite for ensuring access to professional tools for all scientific communities involved. Corresponding raw data and related documents are examined along their life cycle and embedded into the entire process chain of experimental environments through sustainable indexing and field specific ontologies, traceable and reusable by means of semantic search. Existing infrastructure, e.g. digital libraries, decentralized tools, and repositories, are embedded into the BW-eLabs. As a framework, the 3D platform Wonderland (Sun) comes into place, taking the complexity of professional experimental set-ups into account. The BW-eLabs portal, together with its partner projects LiLa and NetLabs, is designed as an open network for scientific data and experimental set-ups under OpenSource/Open Access/Open Content policy.