Matthias Schwotzer

elabFTW · company speakers →

Implementing an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) system in the daily work of a research institute is indeed associated with drastic changes in everyday life. Once the decision has been made and potential software has been identified, the path to an operational ELN with corresponding hardware is in principle simple and quick. However, the real challenge of development and implementation starts at this stage. The implementation of eLabFTW, a widely used system, at the Institute for Functional Interfaces (IFG) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is shown as an example of this process. It becomes obvious that the organisation of the system has to adapt flexibly to the respective needs of the use case under consideration. Another challenge is the development of motivating moments for the scientists to apply the system and use it in an efficient way; the advantages of such a system often only become apparent after a longer period of operation. If the necessary activation energy has been raised here - additionally enforced, in particular by the external constraints of the research landscape, to integrate modern tools for research data management (RDM) into daily practice - the system can continue to develop nearly spontaneously in a vital environment of an institute. However, such a process also requires intensive care and continuous maintenance of the ELN system. In this contribution, those aspects will be highlighted and presented with reference to the eLabFTW installation at the IFG.

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