NEURODESK

Neuroimaging research often involves a complex analysis pipeline that relies on specific software releases and operating systems. This creates challenges in reproducibility, as running the same pipeline on a different computer can lead to unexpected results.

Neurodesk addresses this issue by providing a containerised data analysis environment. This environment ensures that researchers can access the exact software versions and tools they need, regardless of their computing setup. This allows for:

• Reproducible Research: Findings can be easily replicated by other researchers, promoting trust and accelerating scientific progress.
• Simplified Collaboration: Researchers can share their analysis pipelines and data with collaborators without worrying about compatibility issues.
• Increased Efficiency: Scientists can focus on their research questions rather than troubleshooting software dependencies.

The Neurodesk project requires two computational resources to function well in a particular geographical region: a CVMFS Stratum 1 mirror and a so-called Play server. The project has used custom CVMFS mirrors on public cloud providers in the past, but managing such a server requires dedicated people to keep everything updated and running optimally. EGI provides access to large shared CVMFS mirror servers that are professionally managed distributing the Neurodesk repository through this infrastructure makes use of existing and well-managed infrastructure and increases the resilience of the network. The Play server is a cloud-hosted Neurodesk environment that allows potential Neurodesk users to explore the software without installing anything locally. It is also often used in workshops where researchers need to access a consistent computational environment. Providing cloud resources for this Play service in Europe allows European researchers to access this environment quickly and efficiently.

A screenshot from running a computational neuroimaging notebook in Neurodesk Play