OneSciencePlace is built on open-source software and open standards. A unified open-source distribution for institutional self-hosting is part of the project's long-term plan.

Current status: Managed deployment is available today. The unified open-source distribution is planned, with proposal funding currently under review.
Rationale

Why open source

An open-source distribution reflects the project's commitment to academic transparency, reproducibility, and long-term community sustainability. It also enables institutions with self-hosting requirements or policy constraints to deploy OneSciencePlace on their own infrastructure and contribute to its development. Beyond these immediate benefits, open distribution ensures the platform's continuity beyond any single institutional sponsor — protecting the investments researchers and institutions make in the platform.

Distribution scope

What the open distribution will include

The components below are planned for the initial public release of the unified distribution.

  • Curated and ready-to-use applications (Jupyter, RStudio, Linux Desktop, VSCode, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and NVIDIA NGC stacks with GPU support, and others)
  • Core web application and user interface
  • Application runtime and container launch system (single-port web apps; GUI delivered via embedded VNC, DCV, or Xpra in the container)
  • Identity connectors (OIDC, SAML, LDAP) and per-system identity mapping
  • Compute integration for standalone VMs/hosts (no scheduler) and Slurm clusters
  • Data integration for POSIX and S3-compatible object storage; policy-based job archiving
  • FAIR publishing components (metadata and DOIs)
  • Documentation
Some provider-specific operational tooling and automation may remain part of the managed deployment rather than the public distribution.

See the development roadmap →

Open ecosystem

Relationship to existing open projects

OneSciencePlace uses Tapis as its compute and data orchestration layer, incorporates SeedMeLab's virtual filesystem and data sharing capabilities directly, and reflects lessons learned from earlier community platforms including HUBzero, CIPRES, and Apache Airavata.

Governance

Community governance

Once the open distribution is released, the public repository is intended to include:

  • Issue tracking
  • Contribution guidelines
  • Roadmap visibility
  • Structured security disclosure process

The specific governance model will be determined as the project transitions to community development. Initial expectations include a public technical steering process informed by deploying institutions and active contributors. Release milestones will align with funded development phases and institutional adoption.

Two paths

Self-hosted and managed deployment

Once the open distribution is released, institutions will have two paths for deploying OneSciencePlace. Both paths will be supported — the right choice depends on the institution's infrastructure, staffing, and policy requirements.

Self-hosted (planned)
The planned open distribution will enable institutions to deploy and operate OneSciencePlace on their own infrastructure, contribute to its development, and adapt it to local requirements.
Managed deployment (available today)
The managed deployment option provides infrastructure operations, upgrades, monitoring, and security hardening — handled by the OneSciencePlace team. Available today.
Early conversations

For institutions considering self-hosting

While the open distribution is pending funded development, institutions considering self-hosting in the future are invited to contact the OneSciencePlace team. Early conversations help the project team understand deployment requirements, policy constraints, and integration needs — and ensure the distribution reflects the needs of the institutions most likely to adopt it.

Interested in collaborating?

Talk with the OneSciencePlace team about deployment requirements, contribution paths, or institutional self-hosting.

Request a demo See deployments See the roadmap