The project sought to provide a comprehensive online training program to enhance the laboratory skills of students and young scientists in biomedical sciences/biotechnology as a stepping stone towards a hands-on workshop. It also aimed to help the teachers to guide the students in a simulated environment to attend hands-on. The project also aimed to address the limitations of existing learning environments concerning science laboratories in higher education by using technology innovatively to create a safe and interactive virtual lab environment. Another objective was to contribute to the highest educational standards in biomedical research by allowing students with limitations to get as close as possible to hand on experience. The project aimed to achieve the following: creating a new training Virtual Lab curriculum; provide teachers with tools to implement innovative teaching strategies, provide suggestions to the teachers how to use the VIBES to build upon and expand the teaching curriculum. It also wanted to provide an overview of appropriate lab methodologies for describing bioscience processes; giving a practical introduction to advanced simulation tools; and increasing awareness of the need for standard model descriptions.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed inadequacies in current teaching methods in general and practical workshops in particular. The VIBES project addresses the need for virtually accessible practical training courses for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and biomedical education in Europe and potentially beyond. Reasons for creating a virtual lab include the potential next pandemic, the concept of 4R in research, high education costs, and a lack of sufficient access to modern laboratories. Thus, VIBES focused on developing innovative virtual training tools to support students and teachers in achieving learning objectives related to practical laboratory work in developmental biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Virtual labs can introduce a new kind of experimental science into courses and train young scientists in thinking for life sciences. The tools are also very valuable for students with special needs that limit participation in practical training. For biologists, virtual labs are valuable for learning advanced simulation tools and can promote standardized model descriptions and data.