Virtual Research Environment
Empowering Research with Data Autonomy and Open Source
High-quality IT research infrastructure is essential for scientific progress. While a standard workstation, such as the University Workplace (UWP), meets many needs, researchers often require more—especially when it comes to data autonomy, collaboration, and compliance.
Virtual Research Environment (VRE): Your Open, Secure Space
The Virtual Research Environment (VRE) is designed to give researchers full control over their data and workflows. As an open, secure digital environment, the VRE enables you to:
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Collaborate freely with other researchers, using open source tools and applications.
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Access and manage your research data with transparency and autonomy, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
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Customize your infrastructure to fit your specific needs, leveraging open standards and community-driven solutions.
Built for Sensitive Data, Powered by Open Source
Drawing on our experience supporting researchers in Medical, Social Sciences, and Humanities domains, the VRE offers a suite of open source applications tailored for working with sensitive data. Our commitment to open source ensures that your research remains accessible, reproducible, and under your control. For a full overview, visit our wiki.
Secure workspace for researchers
Do you use sensitive data in your research?
The VRW is a virtualized desktop environment in which researchers collaborate and perform secure data analyses. Within the VRW, collaborations are possible with researchers from your own organization, but also from other institutions. The VRW's services, including your applications and data, are available 24/7. As a researcher, you have complete control over your data and results, while the risk of data breaches is minimized. When you work in this environment, your data is guaranteed to remain secure, even if your laptop is lost or stolen.
Two variants
VRW
This basic variant meets the necessary functionalities and presentations for most researchers. It is a highly available configuration with a virtual workspace including 1 GB of personal disk space, 100 GB of shared disk space, 4 virtual processors (vCPUs), and 12 GB of memory.
VRE, based on your input
If the VRW does not meet your requirements, we can offer a customized solution tailored to your desired functionalities and performance.
Secure working environment researchers
Do you have specific requirements when conducting your research, and is an extra secure workspace alone not sufficient? Then you can also opt for a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). A VRE is a fully customized digital work environment with your own (existing and new) applications, data, and services. It makes use of readily available standard components (building blocks). This service is always tailored to the research team.
Safety regulations for storing data
By default, the VRE offers the option of storing data both on your personal disk and on a shared disk space. Data storage meets the requirements for secure data storage, complying with the following standards:
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UG Security Baseline 2021
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AVG / GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)