Hot Topics in R&D Data Management for 2015

The New Year is already in full swing and as we move wholeheartedly into 2015, a look into the crystal ball shows exciting developments for research and development (R&D) across all domains. Will this be the year that scientists cure a major disease or make significant treatment advances? Or perhaps a new biofuel will reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and change the way we live.

Against a backdrop of pressure to reduce costs in the lab and the need to bring products to market faster, achieving innovation and scientific breakthroughs like these is not without challenge. But as researchers increasingly look to boost efficiencies and collaboration, with the support of smart informatics tools, these environments open themselves up to achieving the next Eureka moment.

We’ve identified some of the key considerations for R&D teams this year:

Collaboration

The modern model of collaborative working and externalization in R&D means that ‘virtual teams’ must be able to safely share data and knowledge. Today’s model means that the right data needs to be with the right person at the right time. It involves overcoming issues such as IP protection and IT security – a complex scenario that needs supporting with the right enterprise software.

Speed to market

In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, researchers are under significant time and cost pressures. This means that cutting development costs and increasing speed to market and innovative agility are questions of commercial survival. To achieve this, organizations are increasingly looking to single, flexible software platforms that can work across workflows and the development lifecycle.

Data insight

In life sciences, a whopping 24,859 hours are lost per month as researchers transcribe and search for data in paper notebooks. In industrial sciences it’s a massive 14,396 hours wasted* – time that could be spent on R&D. Automating these processes unlocks data, boosting innovation and bringing scientists closer to the next great discovery.

2015 crystal ball gazing provides some serious food for thought, but as Eric Hoffer once said: “the only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future”. It’s unlikely that electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) were front of mind at the time, but the sentiment rings true. Advanced informatics tools, which make it simple to achieve streamlined knowledge management, empower greater opportunity and accelerate revolutionary findings which will shape this year and beyond. And at IDBS, we believe that E-WorkBook 10 represents the next advance towards the lab of the future.

Learn more about what the future holds and E-WorkBook 10.

*Findings from a survey of IDBS customers and prospects based on 100 scientists working 8h/day for 48 weeks/year