Best Practices for Electronic Laboratory Notebook Implementation in R&D Labs
In today’s highly competitive global economy, innovation is mission critical for research and development (R&D) organizations. An important key to effective innovation is the efficient capture and sharing of experimental data to help organizations leverage their collective experience and knowledge.
Unfortunately, many organizations have research data stored in ways that make effective knowledge gathering and collaboration between scientists difficult. Data storage in formats such as paper notebooks, computers and company IT systems, for example, often fails to capture the full breadth of researcher knowledge and the context in which that knowledge was created.
Today, most established companies involved in R&D have made the shift from paper to electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN) to address these issues. ELNs allow researchers to capture the experiment process, relevant data, and conclusions that were drawn, while simultaneously facilitating a searchable repository of experimental data that researchers can access for effective collaboration.
Effective implementation and integration of an ELN can have a transformational effect on the way research is conducted in an organization. However, due to a competitive marketplace and pressure from management for rapid ROI, many companies take a “paper on glass” approach to ELN implementation whereby existing paper notebooks are simply recreated in the ELN. This approach has the advantage of maintaining familiarity for end users and facilitating rapid implementations, but it falls short in providing key functionality and harnessing the full value that can be gained with these systems.
In this blog, we will discuss some of the key benefits that can be harnessed from effective utilization of ELN technology, along with best practices for implementing an ELN that will allow your organization to maximize business value.
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