Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) <http://www.ornl.gov> and partners have launched DataONE (http://dataone.org) <http://dataone.org> , a global data access and preservation network projected to make vast amounts of information related to environmental research readily available. The network, which has received a $20 million grant through the National Science Foundation DataNet programme, will also receive $700,000 over five years.

With this effort, universities and government agencies are coming together to address the growing need for organising and providing large amounts of highly diverse and interrelated but often incompatible scientific data. The resulting computing and processing cyber infrastructure will be made permanently available for use by the broader international science communities. Studies will range from research that sheds light on fundamental environmental processes to identifying environmental problems and potential solutions.