Project summary

Funding - £1750k in total (with 400k for Digital Solutions Hub) via the DSIT Research Cloud Pilot call

Timeline - January 2024 to April 2025

Aim - to accelerate innovation in environmental data services by delivering cloud-based, interoperable solutions that enhance data discoverability, secure access, and cross-domain integration

Core project team - Helen Snaith (project lead), Gordon Blair, Esther Conway, Louise Darroch, Richard Kingston, Poppy Townsend

Previous research - The project builds on the outcomes of the ENHANCE-EDS project.

About the project

BOOST-EDS funded by the DSIT Research Cloud Pilot call (£1750k in total, with 400k for Digital Solutions Hub) was a 15-month project running from January 2024 to April 2025. The project developed innovative solutions for: delivery of persistent identifiers for instrumentation; support of emerging environmental genomics tools; enhancing the use of environmental data in TREs with cloud based, transferable solutions. The project also assessed a range of existing cloud services and addressed best practise in terms of co-creation of services. The recommendations of these various work packages are now being considered under the service governance for the EDS.

BOOST-EDS tackled systemic obstacles, including the lack of:

Unique identifiers for sensors
Interoperable tools across platforms
Linkages between genomic and environmental data
Secure access via Trusted Research Environments (TREs)
User-friendly, co-designed data tools

Through BOOST-EDS, we have developed three distinct pilot services:

Sensor PID minting service (https://pid-sms.bodc.uk/)
Pilot of ESRI geospatial software in JASMIN TRE to AWS public cloud; (ongoing development)
Modular code and workflow integrating genomics and environmental data showcased through an Online data portal (https://cehrse-boost.datalabs.ceh.ac.uk/)

We also delivered a series of recommendations including:

Prototype for complex citation linking lifecycle objects that has been Endorsed by the Research Data Alliance (RDA)
Reports and recommendations for platform interoperability (e.g. RO-Crates, Jupyter Notebooks, SSO)
Online toolkit for environmental data service design
Formation of an expert group and community of practice

These deliverables have led to:

Enhanced data discoverability, traceability, and credit for contributors
Enhanced flexibility, reuse, and cross-domain FAIR principles for genomics data
Cultural shift towards inclusive, iterative, co-created tools

Common themes that were identified across the project that will underpin future innovation include the importance of:

People and communities, governance, and information management
Data integrity, machine-readable metadata, and automated workflows
Adaptable infrastructure and cloud scalability
Modularity and cross-disciplinary integration

In order for the EDS to benefit from the pilot initiatives, some key actions will need to be taken:

Conversion of the pilot applications and toolkits to operational services
Take up of key recommendation on governance of platform interoperability services
Maintenance of co-creation toolkit

Project reports

D4.1: Working Group, Workshops, User Surveys and Key Reports. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15309111

D4.2 – Progress with establishing a TRE on JASMIN. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15310035

D4.3 - CEOS Jupyter Notebooks Best Practice V1.1 [https://ceos.org/document_management/Working_Groups/WGISS/Documents/WGISS%20Best%20Practices/CEOS_JupterNotebooks_Best%20Practice_v1.1.pdf]

D4.4 - NERC DataLabs: A Roadmap to improve Discovery and Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15310542

D4.5: Inter-platform/archive workflows and potential use cases for RO-Crate. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15312108

D4.6 - Recommendation for improving the interoperability of Data Analysis Platforms. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15312321

D5.1: Townsend, P., et al. (2025). User centred approaches for environmental data services: embedding co-creation and collaboration. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15115281

D5.2 Online toolkit: https://nerc-eds.github.io/co-creation-toolkit/
For details see: Tvaranavicius, P., & Lloyd, D. (2025). Co-Creation Toolkit for Environmental Services. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15102338

D5.3: Townsend, P., et al. (2025). Forming an expert group for user centred environmental data services. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15102557

Next steps for BOOST-EDS

To benefit from the BOOST-EDS pilot activity, the roadmap will need to include:

Persistent Identifiers (WP1)

Expand sensor PIDs with bulk upload & knowledge graphs
Link sensors to data workflows
Standardise across platforms

Trusted Research Environments (WP2)

Engage wider cloud providers and fund scalable infrastructure
Partner with experts (e.g., DARE UK) for future TRE rollouts

Genomic-Environmental Data Workflows (WP3)

Further modularisation and integration into bioinformatics pipelines
Develop batch query tools

Interoperability (WP4)

Pilot cross-platform workflows and promote training in digital landscapes
Advance studies into AI-assisted metadata and vocabularies

User-Centred Design (WP5)

Institutionalise co-creation as core strategy
Promote shared documentation and community engagement
Develop and sustain the online toolkit

Next steps for BOOST-EDS

To benefit from the BOOST-EDS pilot activity, the EDS roadmap will need to include: