Network Institute researchers Philip Verhagen and Dries Daems will, in collaboration with the Netherlands eScience Center, develop a platform to host a library of computational models and algorithms for simulating the past, called ModelPlaza. The platform is aiming to redefine current practices in collaboration and synergy in modelling communities by developing an openly available and functional modules library. It will be offering a host of elements (modules, techniques, algorithms, how-to’s/wikis etc.) as building blocks for elaborate and case-driven models and research questions. In this way, both modellers and the general academic public will have the opportunity to critically engage with published models, scrutinise their preconditions, and develop their own implementations with ease. The project, that will run until the end of this year is building on the efforts undertaken by the NASSA project (Network for Agent-based modelling of Socio-ecological Systems in Archaeology), and is financed by the NWO Open Science Fund. Researchers interested in following or contributing to the project can sign up in Google Groups with nassaabm@googlegroups.com.

Snapshot of the library of computational models and algorithms for simulating the past