Poster: Integration of Open Source electronic laboratory notebooks for the biomedical Research Data Management Framework at Göttingen Campus

In biomedical research the extensive primary documentation of laboratory materials and processes is an essential prerequisite of FAIR research data management approaches. This part of documentation is increasingly carried out digitally in electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN). As more and more measurement results in the laboratory are delivered in digital formats ELNs can serve as information hubs that cross-link various complementary metadata and data types with primary information by the researchers.

Starting in 2014, we implemented a productive ELN service (RSpace) as fundamental part of our framework for managing research data for biomedical consortia engaged in basic and translational research at the University Medical Center Göttingen and its partner institutions at the Göttingen Campus. RSpace facilitates metadata management and standardization for experimental resources and workflows, e.g. by advanced sharing, template, tagging, data integration, data export, and inventory functionalities. Originally started as proprietary software project RSpace code is now completely Open Source (https://github.com/rspace-os) which opens up a variety of possibilities regarding interoperability, modularity, and sustainability of the application. In addition to the ELN, our research data platform (RDP) framework consists of a complementary setup of various RDM tools (such as Göttingen Research Online (GRO), menoci, FAIRDOM-SEEK, and OMERO). All framework components provide persistent identification of digital objects as well as API capabilities enabling sustainable cross-linking of information between the systems. ELN and RDP development and training are performed in close cooperation with the Göttingen eResearch Alliance (https://www.eresearch.uni-goettingen.de/).