What is the Digital Research Environment?
The Digital Research Environment (DRE) is a cloud based, globally available research environment where data is stored and organized securely and researchers can quickly generate workspaces to collaborate in and use the applications they love. Globally available and accessible 24/7. read moreWhat is the Digital Research Environment?
The Digital Research Environment (DRE) is a cloud based, globally available research environment where data is stored and organized securely and where researchers can quickly generate workspaces to collaborate in. Within these workspaces, researchers have preinstalled applications at their disposal, as well as the ability to bring own tooling. Globally available and accesible 24/7.The DRE facilitates users to collaborate on research projects in a safe, yet flexible compute and storage environment. The architecture of the DRE allows researchers to use a solution within the boundaries of data management rules and regulations. Although General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Good (Clinical) Research Practice still rely on researchers, the DRE offers tools to more easily control and monitor which activities take place within your projects.
Full control
Within the DRE platform each of the projects you are a member of consists of a separate, secure folder, called a 'workspace'. Each workspace is completely secure, so as a researcher you are in full control of your data. You can invite (external) colleagues into your workspace for collaboration, and with the same ease revoke access at any time. Each workspace has its own list of users, which can be managed by its administrators.Scalable
Each workspace is fully scalable with regard to data quantity and computing power, thereby supporting anything from small to complex multicenter, multisource studies. Moreover, the workspace enables you to perform ‘worry free’ research, meaning that security, ICT infrastructure and compliance with laws and regulations are automatically taken care of when using the DRE.Various sources
You can handle many data types from various sources within your workspace. Some examples: data collected with a survey tool or an electronic data capture tool like Castor or RedCap, data from measuring equipment, IKNL data, clinical data from Biobanks and omics data.Install your own tooling
The DRE consists of a web-interface enabling access to virtual machines. Preinstalled tools consist of programs such as SPSS, R Studio, Matlab, and Office, but you are free to install your own tools. Because of the security boundary around workspaces, it is possible to offer users the ability to install their own tooling without harming others.Thanks to the flexibility of the Azure cloud platform, on which the DRE has been built, we can offer a variety of virtualized hardware, including, but not limited, to:
- Standalone virtual Windows / Linux machines (e.g. 72 cores, 144 Gb RAM);
- Compute Clusters (HPC);
- Web-Servers;
- Several storage options (tables/files/SQL/etc.).
DRE consists of a web portal, where, for each workspace separately, you can up- and download data, do member management and connect to virtual machines (launched by a simple click on the icon on your own desktop, like a computer in a computer).
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What challenges does DRE solve?
DRE solves many of the current problems researchers face, such as: time, right tools, cost, scalability, effectiveness, security & control. read morePreinstalled and own tools
The DRE consists of a web-interface enabling access to virtual machines. Preinstalled tools consist of programs such as SPSS, R Studio, Matlab, and Office, but you are free to install your own tools. read morePreinstalled and own tools
The DRE consists of a web-interface enabling access to virtual machines. Preinstalled tools consist of programs such as SPSS, R Studio, Matlab, and Office, but you are free to install your own tools.Because of the security boundary around workspaces, it is possible to offer users the ability to install their own tooling without harming others.
Thanks to the flexibility of the Azure cloud platform, on which the DRE has been built, we can offer a variety of virtualized hardware, including (but not limited) to:
- Standalone virtual Windows / Linux machines (e.g. 72 cores, 144 Gb RAM);
- Compute Clusters (HPC);
- Web-Servers;
- Several storage options (tables/files/SQL/etc.).
Key features of DRE
- Import data sources, organize data, store data securely
- Use, manage, combine and re-use data
- Handle multiple types of data: clinical, images, omics, etc.
- Generate virtual workspaces for researchers
Key features of DRE
- Import data sources, organize data, store data securely
- Use, manage, combine and re-use data
- Handle multiple types of data: clinical, images, omics, etc.
- Generate virtual workspaces for researchers
- Use the research tools and applications you want
- Invite fellow researchers into your workspace to collaborate on data and analysis
- Access it anywhere, any time, on any device
- With top security
- All data is compliant, by design
- Pseudonymization software
- High-performance computing
- For single and multi center studies
- A catalogue with data for re-use
- Self-service for researchers
Self service No long-term commitment
DRE allows researchers to pay for compute capacity by the second, with no long-term commitment or upfront payments. You can increase or decrease compute capacity via self service, always in charge of your costs.Data Stewardship team
The Data Stewardship technology center provides services in the area of research ICT. We currently provide support and training for the Digital Research Environment (DRE), Castor, Epic for research , Labguru and general research data management.
Radboudumc Technology Center Data stewardship
This technology center provides knowledge, tooling and infrastructure required for collecting, analyzing, archiving and reusing research data.
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