PNNL

Abstract

Collaboratories and virtual facilities are a new way of organising and performing scientific work that holds tremendous promise. Researchers accessing these facilities remotely can securely control instruments, run analysis and visualisation tools, store notes in a shared electronic notebook, and converse with colleagues using videoconferencing, whiteboards and shared applications, as easily as if they were onsite. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is a new national user facility that is adopting the Collaboratory as a primary means of supporting users and interacting with collaborators and partners. The EMSL Virtual NMR Facility, already being discussed as a national model for future NMR facilities, provides a good example of the state-of-the-art, and of the specific benefits that can be obtained.