National Institutes for Health Selects LabArchives as Its One Approved Multi-Discipline ELN

Researchers at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) are facing another new requirement. As of June 30, 2024, all NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) Investigators are required to document new and ongoing research using only electronic resources. This requirement falls under a federal-wide transition-to-electronic-records mandate coming out of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB).[1-2] This new requirement comes on the heels of the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) policy that requires all Investigators requesting grants submit a plan that outlines how data, and accompanying metadata, will be shared and managed.[3] 

New mandates like these can create costly and burdensome obstacles for researchers and support staff, especially if they have to work out a solution on their own; but the NIH got ahead of this by making LabArchives electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) available institute-wide, where the solution is not only helping its researchers meet core security requirements and comply with records-management policies, but is also providing easy-to-use tools to help multidisciplinary teams work more efficiently, thoroughly and collaboratively.

The NIH now licenses all LabArchives research products—including the ELN, Inventory, and Scheduler—enterprise-wide, for all researchers, across all of its 27 institutes and centers. The transition to LabArchives has gone remarkably well; as use at the NIH has grown exponentially since 2021, NIH program leadership has praised LabArchives’ “A+ support model.”

In its Intramural Electronic Lab Notebook Policy, the NIH has this to say about the benefits of using a centrally supported ELN:

"The NIH is providing centrally supported commercial electronic laboratory notebooks for use NIH wide. Use of NIH-provided ELNs offers numerous benefits to the researcher such as in-platform collaboration, accelerated data sharing, and extensive capabilities for assuring data integrity. Further, use of centrally supported ELNs reduces operating costs and simplifies compliance with applicable regulations and Investigator responsibilities."[4]

How was LabArchives Chosen? 

In advance of the federal electronics-record mandate, an NIH ELN Implementation Team (NEIT) was formed to help ensure researchers would have the technology they needed to meet new requirements. In hopes of both minimizing any disruption to work, as well as positioning researchers for success, the NEIT assessed new commercial options, as well as existing solutions that researchers had already been using. The NEIT defined its expectations of an ELN, stating: 

“ELNs serve as the complete research record, documenting why specific experiments were initiated, how they were performed, what data and observations were produced, where the data are stored, and how the data were analyzed and interpreted, in sufficient detail so the research can be reproduced by others.”[4]

The NEIT hoped to choose one (or as few as possible) SaaS platform that could serve as a centrally supported ELN. This would not only help reduce operating costs and simplify compliance, but also streamline collaboration and data sharing, accelerate research, drive platform interoperability, and enhance efficiency. 

Why was LabArchives Chosen?

LabArchives emerged as the ideal multi-discipline ELN for use institute wide. The NEIT believed LabArchives offered the best of both worlds:

• reliability in safeguarding data and facilitating collaboration across specialties and locations
• versatility, ease of use, and a wide breadth of powerful tools for meeting the unique needs of multidisciplinary teams working in different areas of science

A few key factors set LabArchives apart from other options. 

• Compliance: LabArchives satisfies core security and records-management requirements that the NEIT had outlined, including record log; federal record retention and backup; paper-record capture; security controls and access tracking; role-based permission; and on-track FedRamp authorization. 
• Multi-discipline Support: LabArchives can support the NIH’s broad range of multi-discipline work, such as within molecular biology (SnapGene integration), statistical analysis (GraphPad Prism integration), and chemistry (ChemDraw availability). While a few other options are available on a very limited basis for special use cases, LabArchives is the one singular ELN recommended for institute-wide multi-discipline use.
• Affordability and Usability: LabArchives offers not only unrivaled affordability, but also unrivaled usability, with features such as a Microsoft Office plug-in, lab inventory and scheduling tools, templates and widgets, collaboration tools, advanced data search and reporting capabilities, in-platform PubMed access, a camera app for paper-based data upload, and more. 
• Trusted Reputation and Best-in-Class Support Model: LabArchives has a long history of serving the critical needs of government and academic institutions, as well as their researchers. The NIH knew it could rely on LabArchives’ proven implementation model and its dedicated Enterprise Success team to provide outstanding documentation, user training, consultations, and white-glove support.

What Impact is LabArchives Having at the NIH?

As the one multi-discipline ELN recommended for NIH-wide use, LabArchives is available—at no additional team cost—to all NIH Investigators (or their designees), including those working in GxP validated research environments and those whose work will produce IP. 

NIH researchers have access to 7,000 LabArchives licenses and are seeing a range of benefits, including better:

• research reproducibility,
• data accessibility,
• process efficiency, and
• data integrity and IP protection. 

Learn More

Looking for an Enterprise Data Management Solution for Your Institution?

As the NIH’s experience illustrates, LabArchives’ enterprise data management solutions are affordable, immediately available, and proven to be successful at addressing critical institutional research needs. We would love to have a short discussion on the initiatives and challenges currently facing your institution to explore how LabArchives can help. 

Have a member of our team contact you to discuss an NIH-style program for your institution.

Try LabArchives for Yourself

LabArchives offers ELN subscription plans to suit organizations and teams of all sizes, including a free version.

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References

• Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Update to Transition to Electronic Records. December 23, 2022. 
• Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Transition to Electronic Records. June 28, 2019. 
• National Institutes of Health (2023). Data Management and Sharing Policy. NIH Publications. 
• Intramural Electronic Lab Notebook Policy. NIH web page. https://oir.nih.gov/sourcebook/intramural-program-oversight/electronic-lab-notebooks/intramural-electronic-lab-notebook-policy (accessed 2024-08-29). 
• Frequently Asked Questions About the Use of ELNs at NIH.  NIH web page. https://oir.nih.gov/sourcebook/intramural-program-oversight/electronic-lab-notebooks/frequently-asked-questions-about-use-elns-nih (accessed 2024-08-29).