NEES: A National "Collaboratory"

The term "collaboratory" was coined in 1989 by Bill Wulf, to describe "a center without walls, in which the nation's researchers can perform their research without regard to geographical location." 1

In the 1990s, a number of groups began adopting the concept to develop and operate specialized equipment for shared use.

What Makes a Collaboratory?

There's even a formal project that studies the science of collaboratories. Their definition:

"A collaboratory is an organizational entity that spans distance, supports rich and recurring human interaction oriented to a common research area, and provides access to data sources, artifacts, and tools required to accomplish key tasks."
By studying well over a hundred collaboratory-like efforts, they have identified four key activities for research collaboratories:
  1. distributed research center
  2. shared instrument
  3. shared, community-wide data system
  4. open system for community contributions of materials

What makes NEES unique is that it addresses all four activities through a single umbrella organization, the NEES Consortium. Click here to see a chart of the overall NEES Consortium organization.

Other Examples



1. Towards a National Collaboratory: Report of an Invitational Workshop at the Rockefeller University, ed. J. Lederberg and K. Uncaphar. Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1989.