This vLab comprises of two online coupled models, which are parameterised and initialised for the specific conditions at a few specifically identified areas for which the required datasets exist. In an attempt to make the tool user friendly a graphic user interface (GUI) developed in the course of previous projects will be used. The GUI allows the user to view model results dynamically through any internet browser. Model results will be stored at the HCMR servers and the user will be able to select the area, scenario, and parameter required, which will then be returned as results in the form of plots. All model parameters and options will be available to the user online. The ultimate operation, therefore, of this vLab will be to allow the user to submit a request for the model to run under a different scenario than those already available.

The RvLab is a very useful and powerful tool, both for users who are already familiar with R (and some of its functions) but also for students and/or scientists who are in favour of open source software and would like to dedicate some time to get familiar with its functions, without having to go through the steep command line R learning curve. The RvLab makes use of "R" which is a statistical processing environment widely used by scientists working in many biodiversity related disciplines. It supports an integrated and optimized (in respect to computational speed-up and data manipulation) online R environment. This vLab tackles common problems faced by R users, such as severe computational power deficit. Many of the routines operating under the R environment, such as the calculation of several biodiversity indices and the running of the multivariate analyses, are often of high computational demand and cannot deliver a result when the respective datasets are in the form of large matrices. The RvLab runs on a HPC cluster, using version 3.5.2 (2018-12-20) on a x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit) platform, and offers an intuitive virtual environment interface enabling users to perform analysis of ecological and microbial communities based on optimized vegan functions. The user can benefit from the availability of newly designed functions if the dataset to be analysed requires their implementation. The RvLab is an interactive virtual laboratory; should the user require other types of functions, these can be added in the "laboratory" and become available online in a short time. Login is required.

The MicroCTvlab is a service which was created in order to present and disseminate micro-CT (micro-computed tomography) datasets through the framework of the LifeWatchGreece project. This service offers virtual galleries and online tools for the 3D manipulation of the micro-CT datasets. The creation and dissemination of these "cyber-specimens" aim to contribute to a massive digitization of biological collections. The Micro-CT is a web application compatible with all major web browsers. So far, 24 micro-CT datasets have been published, representing a selection of biological and biomedical samples scanned with different parameters. On the main page, scans are presented as a preview of images accompanied by the title of the dataset. When any of these micro-CT datasets is selected by the user, the dataset details are displayed in four tabs, featuring: a) an overview page; b) an interactive tool for manipulating the 3D representation; c) a preview video and d) metadata for the dataset. A Micro-CT Rest API is also available for getting and creating new content.

MedOBIS is the Regional OBIS Node for the Mediterranean Sea. It is hosted by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture https://imbbc.hcmr.gr/ (IMBBC), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, HCMR https://www.hcmr.gr/en/ , Heraklion (Crete). Launched in 2003, it has already been operational in 2005 as a Tier 3 Node of EurOBIS and covered the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Under the European projects EMODNET and LifeWatchGreece (started in 2013), it became a Tier 2 node and extended to all Mediterranean Sea. MedOBIS provides access to data from a wide range of sources and time periods, including new and historical data sets. MedOBIS actively contributes to global scientific efforts for FAIR and OPEN data. The MedOBIS vLab consists of the MedOBIS IPT (Integrated Publishing Toolkit- http://ipt.medobis.eu/), which is available for sharing data and metadata, and Medobis viewer as a geodata tool, developed by open layers for visualization. MedOBIS can accept any data files from its data sources or data providers, and it publishes these data on its Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), which is harvested by central OBIS. The Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) is developed and maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). For more information check here: https://obis.org/manual/contribute/ MedOBIS currently (2021) hosts 54 datasets, covering the period 1844 to 2017, with over 77,000 occurrence records accompanied with taxonomical, trait, geographical and environmental information. Login is required to access the vLab; while the IPT is open to any user.

Data Services provide the users with tools in order to: a) publish their datasets and make them available to the community by providing information that allows a user to locate and access the resource and its curator/creator, b) import their datasets to the Lifewatch Greece Infrastructure and to GBIF or MedOBIS, c) perform biodiversity data and information quality improvement, and d) search about datasets of interest by providing an efficient way of querying semantic networks. The schema of the data that is provided by the users is mapped to the semantic model of the LWI and the data is transformed to LWI format before it is stored to the Infrastructure. The semantic model is based on CIDOC CRM (http://www.cidoc-crm.org/), CRM dig, CRM geo, CRM sci and MarineTLO (http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl/MarineTLO/). Login is required to access the service.