Collaboratories

Collaboratories are virtual centers in which researchers can perform research, interact with colleagues, access remote instrumentation and information in digital libraries, and share data and computational resources without regard to geographic location. The concept was born in the mid-1990s out of the Department of Energy's desire to accelerate its ability to meet its missions through advanced computing and communications technologies and the sharing of nationwide scientific resources.

The CRF led one of the first collaboratories, the Diesel Combustion Collaboratory (DCC). The goal of the DCC was to develop a more complete understanding of the diesel combustion process and to facilitate that effort through the use of collaborative tools and technologies by participants of the Diesel Combustion Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). The collaboratory was active from 1997 to 2001.

Name	Description	Participants
Collaboratory for Multi-scale Chemical Science	Uses advanced collaboration and metadata-based data management technologies in developing an open "knowledge grid" for multi-scale informatics' based chemistry research	Sandia, other government labs, universities
Engine Combustion Network	The purpose of this site is to provide an open forum for international collaboration among experimental and computational researchers in engine combustion.