INTEROP: Creation of an International Virtual Data Center for the Biodiversity, Ecological and Environmental Sciences

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The University of New Mexico has been awarded funding to develop new community capacity and new technologies to support the design, implementation, and deployment of a Virtual Data Center for biodiversity, ecology and the environment. Currently such data is scattered across internet accessible and inaccessible databases and collections. The tools developed in this project will reduce long term costs for gathering and integrating this information, making it more readily available to scientists and policy makers alike. The data center will be broadly accessible via the internet and is to be founded on open standards and protocols for interoperability among existing and new data centers. Semi-annual week-long Technical Working Group meetings will engage information scientists from data centers representing diverse disciplines, information systems developers, and numerous students who will contribute to developing Virtual Data Center prototypes and adopting and adapting basic system interoperability and data exchange standards from the digital library community and various scientific communities. An annual meeting of a Community Engagement Working Group plus an annual External Advisory Committee meeting will address socio-cultural barriers to data preservation and data sharing, as well as data center sustainability. Undergraduate students will participate annually in a summer cyberinfrastructure traineeship as well as in projects during the academic year that are identified by the Working Groups. Outreach will be provided at annual meetings of relevant professional societies, emerging environmental observatories, and research networks. Project results will be incorporated in annual training sessions supported by project partners and through the broad adoption of the interoperability solutions developed as part of this project. In addition to promoting diverse participation in Working Group activities and summer traineeships, results will be freely and openly accessible via the project web site.