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In the past five years, CAS has made huge progress in informa-
tization construction, especially in upgrading the information
infrastructure and a widely accepted understanding of its signif-
icance. Applications that could really take advantage of this
infrastructure and new technologies will become the focus of the
next step. While e-Science represents a whole picture of the effects
that informatization brings to academia, Virtual Lab, a key
concept and the core component in an e-Science context, would
be the most important concrete implementation facing end users,
that is to say, thousands of researchers. Figure one shows the
framework of the CAS e-Science Initiative 2006-2010.
e-Science Virtual Lab
Virtual Lab is not a very new word; however, the ‘virtual lab’
we’re talking about here has its own special meanings in the e-
Science context. To be more clear, we also call it “e-Science
Virtual Lab” if need be.
In our e-Science framework, Virtual Lab takes key positions
between applications and resources. These resources could cover
all aspects of research activities, including the information infra-
structure, scientific equipment and facilities, and so on. Virtual
Lab is the core component to make e-Science a reality as there are
so many existing resources in place, but just a few could be
brought into full play even now, with an advanced infrastructure
ready. The last bottleneck may be the gap between products by
computer experts and end users of domain scientists. According
to our experience, it would take much more effort than expected
to bridge this gap. Therefore, Virtual Lab is proposed to be a basic
unit of research activity in the e-Science environment. Virtual Lab
is the right user interface between scientists and their e-Science
environment. Through Virtual Lab, all kinds of resources could
be integrated into a single access point; customized and flexible
services would be provided according to the specific requirements
of different domains in an easier way than ever before; multi-
disciplinary, multi-site and multi-organization collaboration could
be carried out on a routine basis.
Virtual Lab should have seven crucial features as follows:
Ease of use
– It should be much easier to use than current systems.
To some extent this is more important than functionality.
Resource integration
– Virtual Lab should provide the user with
a single operating environment under which many kinds of
resources, such as supercomputers, mass storage facilities, scien-
tific databases, digital libraries, high bandwidth link, scientific
equipment, etc. could be accessed in a seamless way.
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HEP
HPC
Scientific Data
Networks
Digital Lab
GeoScience
Chemistry
Biology
Application support
Resource information
platform
Virtual
Observatory
Virtual Lab Virtual Lab Virtual Lab Virtual Lab
Public Resource Interface
Field
Stations
Scientific
Instrument
Mobile
Equipment
Natural
Resources
A
R
P
e-Science
Applications
e-Science Facility
Infrastruct
ure
Figure 1: Framework of e-Science initiative 2006-2010
Customized service
– It should provide a user with what he or she
wants completely and exactly. e-Science is a comprehensive envi-
ronment, but each user may need a specific workbench
individually. Furthermore, users may like to choose different
services at different times or at different prices. This requires not
only Virtual Lab, but also the support of a service provider that
can customize the service according to the user’s demand.
Ubiquitous research
– It should benefit from state-of-the-art tech-
nologies on mobile computing and related technologies so that
users can use the Virtual Lab at any time and anywhere.
Collaborative work
– It should enable a lot of scientists, who are
from multiple independent institutions, from multiple sites across
the world, and from different professional backgrounds, to work
together on a collaborative project or a common problem.
Scalability
– It should be able to support hundreds of users
from tens of institutions, but should work just as well for three
or five users.
Management
– It should interact with other management systems,
such as ARP in CAS, to help improve efficiency during the whole
lifetime of a research project or other research activities.
As a pilot project, the Avian Flu Comprehensive Information
Platform and Foreseeing System (AFFS) has been ongoing since
May 2005. Four institutes of CAS (the Institute of Microbiology,
Institute of Virus, Institute of Zoology, and Computer Network
Information Center) in different disciplines are taking part in
this project. A collaborative workbench based on Virtual Lab
has been established, dedicated to the group of scientists within
this project.
The science of tomorrow
ICTs are the product of research, and they are changing the ways
we research, making e-Science the science of tomorrow. CAS
has carried out some key projects to improve its information
infrastructure between 2001 and 2005. CAS researchers have
benefited from this informatization programme over the past
five years. At the time of writing, the plan for CAS e-Science in
2006-2010 is being completed. Virtual Lab will be the core
component of CAS e-Science in the coming years. We believe
in and look forward to the continued success of e-Science in
the Information Society.