Promoting ELN Adoption and Streamlining Data Interoperability in the ETH Domain

The adoption of Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) in academic research settings is steadily increasing and gradually replacing traditional paper-based notebooks. However, transitioning to ELNs requires time and expertise. Complicating matters, the market offers numerous ELN solutions, each with its unique data model, impeding seamless information exchange. In this project, we plan to address two critical aspects of ELN adoption in academia. First, we would like to broaden and strengthen the knowledge and requirements for adoption of ELN and data management solutions in academic research groups inside the ETH domain. This will be a collaboration between ETH Scientific IT Services (SIS) with the School of Engineering of EPFL, drawing from extensive experience inside SIS in deploying and providing their own software, openBIS, as an ELN and data management solution inside the ETH Domain (namely ETH Zurich, Empa and PSI) and beyond. Second, we aim to enhance interoperability by implementing a standard for data export from ELNs. To this end, we will explore and suggest enhancements to the RO-crate format which focuses on packaging data with metadata and simplifies data sharing and preservation, ensuring reproducibility and long-term accessibility. By sharing our experiences and introducing openBIS while exploring data export standards, we aim to contribute to streamlining ELN adoption and fostering data interoperability in academic research environments in the ETH domain. Our approach will facilitate efficient collaboration, enhance research reproducibility, and promote the advancement of scientific knowledge.