Optimising RDM in Collaborative Engineering: A Self-Service, Template-Driven ELN Solution with SharePoint
Authors/Creators
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1.
TU Dresden
Description
Efficient research data management is a key challenge in collaborative engineering. Traditionally, manually configuring SharePoint as an electronic lab notebook has been time-consuming and prone to errors. Our solution introduces a self-service approach with predefined templates that reflect typical project structures. Researchers can independently and without IT support create a structured, transparent data environment that dynamically adapts to the project workflow.
This approach saves time, reduces mistakes, and ensures consistent, sustainable data spaces. While the initial development of templates requires some investment and there are limitations for highly specialised projects, research teams benefit from noticeable relief in their daily work. Our method transforms SharePoint into a flexible tool for research data management, supporting sustainable and collaborative research.
Abstract (English)
SharePoint (SP) has been used as an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) at our institute for several years, supporting a diverse range of collaborative engineering research projects. Nevertheless, the traditional manual setup, adaptation, and customisation of SP as an ELN via the SP’s web interface has proved time-consuming, error-prone, and unscalable when managing a large portfolio of projects.
To address these challenges and improve Research Data Management (RDM) efficiency, we present a method enabling users to self-configure SP as an ELN through predefined templates without the need for specialist IT support. These predefined templates mirror typical engineering project structures, often modelled as process graphs where each node corresponds to a research process with associated data. Based on researchers’ selections, user-defined SP lists and the project’s process graph are dynamically generated, enabling intuitive navigation through the project workflow.
This method ensures consistent and reproducible site structures, significantly reduces manual workload, and leads to measurable reductions in setup time, error rates, and support requests. The approach is particularly advantageous for scalability, efficiency, and reproducibility, though it requires initial investment in template development and may have limitations for engineering projects with highly specialised requirements. Overall, this method strengthens RDM infrastructure and supports sustainable, collaborative engineering research.
This contribution has been partially funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action (BMWK) on the basis of decisions by the German Bundestag within the joint research projects LaSt (grant number 20M2118F), SWaT (grant number 20M2112F), and the IraSME project "CleanReTurn" (grant number KK5023221KO4).
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Poster_202511231143.pdf
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