Blue-Cloud Virtual Labs and Data Lakes in support of Sustainable Development Goals

The Blue-Cloud thematic Virtual Labs (VLabs) and Workbenches are the main test beds for users to get the hang of the Blue-Cloud framework, exploiting the 10+ million datasets available via the Data Discovery and Access Service (DD&AS), as well as the easy access to the collaborative VLabs via D4Science and the EOSC federated login.
These collaborative workspaces hosted in the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment (VRE) are serving more than 1,600 users in total spread across more than 25 countries.

Virtual Labs and applications at a glance

A total of 9 Vlabs were developed and deployed in both Blue-Cloud pilot and Blue-Cloud 2026 projects, making use of the analytical tools and generic services as provided through the VRE, and the data repositories, as made accessible via the DD&AS and through external data services. The Blue-Cloud VLabs are real-life demonstrators for web-based open science and are open and available for testing by t research communities. Each VLab comprises a series of applications for data processing, publishing of data results, and managing computation routines as well as services for collaboration, this way providing open science-friendly working environments for its users to analyse datasets and (re)generate research products: 

Thematic marine services are included in the VLabs and make extensive use of the Blue-Cloud framework and its rich set of resources. These services illustrate the wide range of subjects that can be addressed using such resources, from genomics to wildlife as well as environmental data coming from multiple disciplines and repositories, and all together demonstrate Blue-Cloud 2026’s potential in t lds of marine research, ranging from biodiversity to environmental science, as well as fisheries and aquaculture.

Workbenches in a nutshell

A number of intensive workbenches for selected Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) in physics, chemistry and biology, are being developed and tested in Blue-Cloud 2026.
Ocean and data scientists can implement efficient work that allows them to harmonise, validate and qualify large and various in situ data sources, exploiting the blue analytical services available in the Blue-Cloud. These workbenches are highly relevant for analysing the state of the environment and numerical simulations of the planned Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO), forecasting its evolution and possible impacts of measures, testing and optimising these work, related provenance management, and storage facilities:

• Ecosystem-level EOVs
• Eutrophication: chlorophyll, nutrients, oxygen
• Physics: temperature & salinity