The RIC is being developed in partnership by the British Library and Microsoft External Research. Both partners are working with a range of organisations to ensure the RIC will provide a suitable environment for supporting scientific research in a digital age.
The RIC is being developed as an on-line research environment accessible via any web browser. It provides a secure hosting environment that utilises the Microsoft SharePoint Server platform.
The British Library intends to develop several versions of the RIC. The initial focus for development is biomedical research. The Library is collaborating with a range of research groups and organisations to inform the content and functionality of the first public release.
A key aspect of the project is the intention to release the code as ‘open source’. The RIC provides a flexible environment that can be tailored as required. This provides us with an opportunity to work with different user communities to develop tools and other ‘plug-ins’ that suit their needs.
Functionality within the RIC has already been informed by testing with biomedical research groups across academia and industry, in the UK and abroad. Our aim is to continue research community testing with the next phase release of the RIC. Details of how you can get involved will be posted on this website in due course.
