The ourSpaces Virtual Research Environment makes use of Semantic Web technologies to create a platform to support multi-disciplinary research groups. This paper introduces the main semantic components of the system: a framework to capture the provenance of the research process, a collection of services to create and visualise metadata and a policy reasoning service. We also describe different approaches to authoring and accessing metadata within the VRE. Using evidence gathered from data provided by the users of the system we discuss the lessons learnt from deployment with three case study groups.

Assessing the quality of sensor data available on the Web is essential in order to identify reliable information for decision-making. This paper discusses how provenance of sensor observations and previous quality ratings can influence quality assessment decisions.

Web-based Virtual Research Environments (VREs) have been proposed as one way in which e-Science tools can be deployed to support and enhance the research process. We are exploring the use of Linked Data in combination with the Open Provenance Model (OPM) and Social Web concepts to facilitate interactions between people and data in the context of a VRE. In this demo we present the ourSpaces VRE and outline the technologies used to link together provenance, research artefacts, projects, geographical locations and social data in the context of interdisciplinary research.

In this paper we explore the use of proposed semantic grid standards and methodology through deployment of a land use modelling service. The FEARLUS-G service architecture is presented which allows large scale simulation experiments to be distributed over the grid. We also discuss ontology support for simulation parameters, hypotheses and results that facilitates sharing and re-use of such resources among land-use scientists. This leads to a description of infrastructure for semantic data management which integrates Jena2 and the ELDAS data access service.