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Tools

Overview

This is the Tools section. It provides practical documentation on the tools used to store, archive, publish, and transfer research data at A-LIFE.

Use the three categories below to find the right documentation for your needs.

Supporting materials: GEMs, Resources, FAQs
Authors: Irene Martorelli, Brett Olivier — Last modification: 2026-07-27 — Version: 1.2.0

⚒ What is a Research Tool?

According to SURF, a research tool is a service that supports one or more stages of the research lifecycle — from data collection and processing to analysis, collaboration, publication, and preservation.1

Storage is one of the most fundamental components of research data management: it determines where your data lives while you are working on it, how it is shared with collaborators, and ultimately where it will be safely preserved at the end of your project. Not all storage is the same: active storage is where your data is created and used day-to-day, while archive storage is where your finalised data is deposited for the long term and made findable and reusable through a persistent identifier such as a DOI.

Alongside storage, there are tools that help you move data around — between your computer and a storage platform, between collaborators, or from one system to another. These transfer tools are not storage solutions themselves, but they are an essential part of getting your data where it needs to be, safely and efficiently.

In this documentation we currently focus on the tools supported at the VU, and we hope to expand coverage in the future. We also include other tools that are widely used in the A-LIFE environment and are accepted, secure, and well-established in the research community.

🗂 Tool Classification in this RDM Collection

The table below gives an overview of the tools covered in this documentation, their category, and whether they are officially supported at the VU. VU Supported ✅ means the tool is listed on the VU Storage Finder.

  • 💾 Active Storage — the digital space where you keep your research data while actively working on it. The right solution depends on data volume, sensitivity, access frequency, and collaboration needs.
  • 🗃 Archive Storage (Archiving & Publishing) — platforms for depositing finalised datasets for long-term preservation and making them publicly available with a persistent identifier such as a DOI. Unlike active storage, these are not designed for working files.
  • 🔄 Transfer — tools for moving data between your local machine and a storage or archiving platform, or for sending large files securely to collaborators. They are not storage solutions themselves — they are the means by which you get data in and out of them.
Tool Category VU Supported? Documentation
Research Drive Active Storage (Collaborative workspace) ✅ Research Drive
Yoda (active mode) Active Storage (Collaborative workspace) ✅ Yoda
Yoda (archiving mode) Archive Storage (Archiving & Publishing) ✅ Yoda — Archiving
Zenodo Archive Storage (Archiving & Publishing) ❌ Zenodo
Cyberduck Transfer (Desktop Client) ✅ Connect with Cyberduck
SURFfilesender Transfer (Web-Based Transfer) ✅ SURFfilesender

🧭 How to navigate this section

While the classification above organises tools by function (Storage or Transfer), the documentation in this collection is currently structured by who supports the tool:

  • ✅ VU Tools — tools officially supported at the VU and listed in the VU Storage Finder
  • 🌐 Other Tools — tools not listed in the VU Storage Finder but widely used in the A-LIFE environment, accepted, and secure

  1. SURF Services — Storage data management: https://www.surf.nl/en/services/storage-data-management ↩