The study of Earth's processes spans a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, from microscopic to continental and from milliseconds to millions of years. Multi-Scale Laboratories investigate these processes by leveraging a diverse array of experimental techniques and instruments, contributing to our understanding of Earth dynamics and associated hazards.

Infrastructure and Collaborative Framework
The Thematic Core Service (TCS) for Multi-Scale Laboratories coordinates over 100 laboratories across Europe. These facilities provide access to advanced experimental apparatus and data from solid Earth science disciplines, fostering harmonized research and collaboration. The initiative emphasizes sharing laboratory outputs via the EPOS platform.

Applications and Societal Impact
Data from Multi-Scale Laboratories is crucial for understanding geohazards, resource extraction, and fundamental Earth processes. For example, insights into rock properties and fault dynamics inform earthquake risk assessment and mining safety. The availability of high-quality experimental data also supports education and public awareness initiatives.

Tools and Platforms
The EPOS platform centralizes data, products, and software from various laboratory infrastructures. It categorizes resources into sub-domains, including analogue modeling, paleomagnetism, geochemistry, and rock properties. The platform also makes MSL labs and equipment discoverable, for research collaboration That way you can further your research, by making use of MSL labs and expertise. Not familiar with laboratories? No worries - we can often help you.

Future Goals and Aspirations
The TCS for Multi-scale Laboratories aims to enhance the coherence and accessibility of experimental Earth science labs and data. The MSL community strives to jointly develop and implement best practices for effective, FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) sharing of lab data. By doing so, and by expanding its network and integrating advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, the initiative seeks to drive innovation and foster a more collaborative research environment.

High-quality datasets produced within Earth science laboratories have crucial value for exploring geo-resources and understanding the earth system evolution in general. At present, however, most datasets remain largely inaccessible and usually require at least a direct interaction with the authors, may have a specific format preventing easy sharing, and lack traceability for intellectual property and appropriate citation.

The TCS Multi-Scale Laboratories collects and harmonises laboratory data on the properties and processes controlling rock system behaviour at multiple scales. Thanks to the TCS MSL data services within EPOS, these data will become easily accessible in a homogenised format, refereed, and thus ready to be used for new research into geo-resources and geo-storage, geo-hazards and Earth system evolution.

MLS Catalogue

The Multi-Scale Laboratories Portal is a metadata catalogue of sustainable data publications, access to general lab information, and a community platform for solid Earth science lab research. The MSL catalogue retrieves and stores metadata from different repositories and supplies this metadata to the ICS’s data portal.

MSL Catalogue is the central metadata portal of the EPOS Multi-Scale laboratories TCS. In it, users can find open access data from a wide range of world-class experimental laboratory infrastructures, divided into four main solid Earth application areas: Analogue modeling of geologic processes, Paleomagnetism, Rock physics and high pressure-temperature laboratories, and Analytical laboratories.

GFZ Data Services

The GFZ Data repository provides metadata of datasets to the MSL catalogue. GFZ Data Services is a research data repository hosted at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, and it is open for research data and scientific software from the Earth and environmental sciences.

Since 2004, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences assigns Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to datasets. These datasets are archived by and published through GFZ Data Services and cover all geoscientific disciplines. Datasets range from large dynamic datasets deriving from data-intensive global monitoring networks with real-time data acquisition to the full suite of highly variable datasets collected by individual researchers or small teams. These highly variable data are small in size but represent an essential part of the total scientific output.

Transnational Access

The TCS Multi-Scale Laboratories is working to establish access rules to the newest and most advanced solid Earth experimental laboratory facilities in Europe.
The groups and lab facilities will be made visible to the community inside the EPOS infrastructure, creating new opportunities for synergy, collaboration and innovation, in a framework of transnational access rules.

Through this system, researchers and research teams across Europe will have the opportunity to present project proposals and be selected to perform experiments at key TCS MSL centres.

Data Providers

The TCS MSL infrastructure provides three scenarios for laboratories to supply their data:

a) through the usage of TCS-wide repositories with facilities for assigning DOI’s and adding TCS compliant metadata;

b) through the usage of a local repository that can handle TCS compliant metadata;

c) through the usage of a general repository for data storage and the TCS metadata editor for the generation of compliant metadata.

TCS MSL IT infrastructure

The definition of a suitable e-infrastructure architecture is essential to guarantee that data from multi-scale laboratories are discoverable, accessible and usable. The IT infrastructure for the TCS Multi-scale laboratories (Figure 1) includes different scenarios for participation, referring to the different maturity of the laboratories with respect to IT infrastructures.

Most laboratories do not have, at the moment, data services and IT infrastructures (no repository or Multi-scale labs compliant metadata) and will act as data providers (orange boxes). Data provision to EPOS will rely on few TCS services, hosted at the four Task Leaders’ institutions (green boxes).

The TCS Multi-Scale Laboratories encompasses a diverse range of world-class experimental laboratory infrastructures, including facilities for high-pressure-temperature rock and fault mechanics, rock physics, electron microscopy, geochemistry, geo-energy test beds, analogue modeling, and (paleo)magnetic studies. It harmonizes laboratory data on properties and processes
governing rock system behavior across multiple scales.
● Wide range of experimental laboratory types: rock/melt physics, paleomagnetism, analytical and microscopy labs, and more.
● Numerous laboratory infrastructures distributed across leading European institutions.

LEADERSHIP

● Chair(s):
o Audrey Ougier-Simonin
o Ronald Pijnenburg

CONSORTIUM COMPOSITION

While the community of MSL labs and researchers spans over 100 labs, the consortium board (i.e. the main governing body of MSL) is smaller, with 12 parties involved.
● Member Organizations:
o France
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
o Germany
GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences.
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
o Italy
National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
Università degli Studi Roma Tre
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse (CNR-IGG).
o Netherlands
Utrecht University
Delft University of Technology
o Portugal
University of Beira Interior (UBI)
o Spain
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas / Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
o United Kingdom
UKRI-British Geological Survey
o Switzerland
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ)

CONTACT

● Leadership:
o Audrey Ougier-Simonin audreyo@bgs.ac.uk
o Ronald Pijnenburg r.p.j.pijnenburg@uu.nl

The consortium is coordinated by Utrecht University (The Netherlands). It functions as a collaborative network of member organizations to collect, harmonize, and share laboratory data,contributing to multidisciplinary research on rock system behavior.