1. Towards a National ELN (A common format for data exchange)

2. Key requirement for Dial-a-Molecule: To be able to predict the outcome of novel reactions Needs high quality information on all reactions carried out, particularly the failed or non-optimum ones. An excellent source would be Electronic Laboratory Notebooks - but academics do not use them! Industry generally do, but the data is not public.

3. Why is it now timely to push for adoption of ELN’s in academia? 1 st meeting to discuss a possible national roll out of an ELN hosted by Prof. Steven Ley FRS, March 2010. Dial-a-Molecule. EPSRC data policy Advancement in ELNs (LIMS) have passed the ‘tipping point’ when effort in adoption < benefits gained. Amount and variety of data generated is rapidly increasing

4. Survey of Academic Views on ELNs (via OrgNet).

7. Aims for ELN Pilot Increase awareness of ELNs in academia Help to define the capabilities needed of an ELN in academia. Identify key barriers to successful adoption Help build the case for funding ELN deployment.

8. ELN Pilot Organised a 6 month Pilot (April-September) of the Accelrys /Contur iLabber cloud based ELN Initially 16 universities and around 250 users identified. Some initial teething problems, mostly overcome. Around 2000 reactions added so far. Perhaps main learning is that availability of computers in the labs is very important for popularity. Not too late to join!

9. CamELS Project (Brian Brooks, Tim Dickens, RJW) JISC funded 6 month study on adoption of IDBS ELN at Cambridge, and 10 user test of remote deployment at Southampton.