A growing number of researchers are using the UG’s secure Virtual Research Environment

In October 2026, the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) of the University of Groningen (UG) surpassed the milestone of 1,000 individual users. The VRE offers researchers full control over their data and work processes. Within this secure collaborative environment, 250 unique studies and research projects are currently being carried out .

The growth in the number of researchers using this open and secure digital environment demonstrates that there is high demand for this type of research IT infrastructure. High-quality IT research facilities are essential for scientific research, but sometimes researchers need more – particularly when it comes to data autonomy, collaboration and compliance with laws and regulations.

Full control for researchers

The Virtual Research Environment (VRE), developed by the University of Groningen, is a locally hosted virtual desktop environment. The VRE is available for research involving sensitive data, giving researchers full control over their data and work processes. The VRE’s services, including applications and data, are available 24 hours a day.

As a secure digital environment, the VRE makes it possible to:

• collaborate freely with other researchers, both within and outside the University of Groningen, using open-source tools and applications
• manage and access research data with transparency and autonomy, ensuring compliance with legislation and regulations
• adapt the infrastructure to specific needs, using open standards and community-driven solutions

Sensitive data remains within the University of Groningen’s infrastructure

With experience in supporting researchers across a wide range of research topics within the faculties – such as medical, social and humanities sciences – the VRE offers a range of open-source applications tailored to working with sensitive data. This aligns with the University of Groningen’s strategic priorities: Healthy Ageing, Energy and Sustainable Society.
The commitment to open-source, amongst other things, ensures that research remains accessible, reproducible and under control. The entire VRE infrastructure runs locally in the University of Groningen’s data centres on hardware managed by the CIT, thereby ensuring that the data remains within the University of Groningen’s infrastructure.

Wide-ranging use

The VRE is used for a wide range of purposes, as evidenced by both its (inter)national user base and the nature of its usage. For instance, the VRE facilitates various medical datasets that serve as the basis for numerous (inter)national studies. A good example is the NELSON and ImaLife datasets for medical research into population-based screening for the early detection of various types of cancer.
In addition to standard use, bespoke solutions are also available, whereby the VRE is tailored to the researchers’ needs. This could include the use of additional GPUs, CPUs, memory or a fully integrated AI environment.