DataPLANT participated in the 15th International Workshop on Science Gateways

Fri Jun 16 2023

DataPLANT actively participated in the 15th International Workshop on Science Gateways held in Tübingen, Germany from 13th to 15th June. The workshop aimed to bring together researchers, scientists, software engineers, and Science Gateway developers from various domains to discuss challenges, share solutions, and shape the future directions of Science Gateways in e-Science.

During the workshop, DataPLANT presented its DataHUB, a state-of-the-art Science Gateway, designed as a technical foundation that incorporates software engineering-inspired approaches for data management and makes them accessible to plant researchers. It offers a range of research data management (RDM) workflows to support scientists in different phases of the data lifecycle. The DataPLANT DataHUB serves as a central hosting facility for ARCs (Annotated Research Contexts), which are Git-backed repositories open to all consortium researchers and their collaborators. This platform provides versioning capabilities, enabling researchers to track changes and revert to previous states. It also facilitates collaboration and eases the burden of initiating partnerships by offering provenance tracking and sharing functionalities.

The DataHUB acts as a science gateway for plant researchers, providing them with a stable and highly available entry point to access various services. The services in DataPLANT are designed to be modular, deployable in different locations, and extensible, following the principle of “infrastructure-as-code.” The platform allows for both cloud-based operation and on-premise setups, enabling researchers to adapt and customize services according to their specific requirements.

Key features of the DataHUB include versioning, group collaboration, support for multiple contributions, and easy-to-use access management. GitLab, a widely used project management platform, serves as the foundation for DataPLANT’s customization to meet the specific needs of the plant research community. The ARC Commander, developed by DataPLANT, provides an abstracted interface for users to interact with the underlying Git commands and perform versioning-related tasks effortlessly.

DataPLANT’s participation in the 15th International Workshop on Science Gateways was a significant opportunity to showcase the advancements in their Science Gateway infrastructure, specifically the DataPLANT DataHUB. The consortium demonstrated its commitment to providing efficient and user-friendly research data management solutions for plant scientists. The workshop also served as a platform for other NFDI (National Research Data Infrastructure) consortia to share their concepts and progress in research data management, fostering collaboration and the exchange of ideas in this rapidly evolving field.

Further Links
15th IWSG DataPLANT DataHUB
Knowledge Base Article - ARC
Knowledge Base Article - DataHUB
Guide - Create your ARC
Guide - Share your ARC