The myExperiment Virtual Research Environment supports the sharing of research objects used by scientists, such as scientific workflows. For researchers it is both a social infrastructure that encourages sharing and a platform for conducting research, through familiar user interfaces. For developers it provides an open, extensible and participative environment. We describe the design, implementation and deployment of myExperiment and suggest that its four capabilities - research objects, social model, open environment and actioning research - are necessary characteristics of an effective Virtual Research Environment for e-research and open science. © 2008 IEEE.