Getting the Word Out on Advances in Bioenergy Research

Summary

A critical issue for the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers is to make all scientific information developed in these large multi-institution collaborative programs readily available across the project. The Berkeley Lab’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has made a major step in this direction by building a comprehensive electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) system around a commercial Laboratory Information Management System provided by the prominent data management software developer, GenoLogics. The JBEI system ensures that both the raw data and the scientific context are recorded for every experiment done anywhere in JBEI. The ELN stores researchers’ notes, electronic data files, documents and images. Researchers can easily search and retrieve this information using any web browser. The JBEI digital timestamping and notebook synchronization software innovations in this system have the potential for non-exclusive licensing to third parties interested in commercial distribution. Two companies, Surety and CustomWare, have already approached JBEI to license and distribute JBEI copyrighted software.