Contact:Rich Lysakowski, The Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Systems Association, 19 Bowen Avenue, Suite 100, Medford, Massachusetts 02155 USA Phone: 781-395-3004 ; Internet: rich@censa.org

Dow Chemical Helps Drive Collaborative Electronic Notebook Market in Vendor-Neutral Consortium

BOSTON, MA--The Dow Chemical Company has joined the Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium. This Consortium of large industrial companies is driving the creation of software systems for electronic laboratory notebooks and R&D team project data management and collaboration systems for the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, food and beverage, oil and gas, and related chemical-based industries. Dow is the fifth Fortune 300 company to join the partnership, along with Air Products and Chemicals and three as yet undisclosed pharmaceutical companies.

"Scientists have long needed electronic notebooks as a way to minimize the tedium of lab work. Currently, researchers spend many hours per week writing, transcribing, cutting and pasting and otherwise transferring data in paper notebooks to record their work." observes Dr. Rich Lysakowski, the Consortium’s Executive Director. He continues "yet, paper notebooks are just one part of a much larger system for managing records, data and documents in R&D projects. The paper chase and tedious bottlenecks in productivity must be minimized. In their current paper form, notebooks are very time-consuming to use and costly to manage -- they lock up key information needed to speed up projects." Dr. Lysakowski says further that "Scientists really require very flexible, open and interoperable software tools that integrate electronic lab recordkeeping, project data management, and collaboration processes. This user-driven Consortium is coordinating the efforts of major R&D organizations through an open process that ensures emerging products fit end users’ needs well."

Barbara Sutter, Manager of R&D Proprietary Information and Corporate Information Technology at the Dow Chemical says "The Consortium is a good deal for Dow because from the start we can specify, test and verify that vendors are building what we need -- the result is that our needs get met better, for less money. Our computer users are asking for better tools to enable them to collaborate globally, and be more productive by eliminating redundant and inefficient paper processes." Barb adds "The Consortium has an open software architecture and open business practices that lets us to pick our infrastructure and scientific toolkits ourselves, and integrate them more easily than before. The Consortium’s shared vision is consistent with Dow’s computer strategy. Simply put, it provides us with the best leverage for our money."

The two-year Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Consortium is now recruiting additional members, up to a maximum of 15. The consortium members are defining and funding the development of commercially-supported electronic notebooks that capture, store and manage electronic records within existing systems for groupware, document management, the World Wide Web, and other systems used in scientific laboratories. The software will permanently record and archive all common types of data from analytical, organic, biochemical, genetic, toxicology and other laboratories, including instrument spectra, chemical structures, documents, spreadsheets, DNA and protein structures, and other data.

At the close of the two-year Consortium, full searching and sharing of all common types of notebook information will be possible from the commercially available products. The notebook software clients will be have a modular architecture that include plug-ins that specialize notebooks for different types of labs and job functions.

The Consortium is pulling together all necessary pieces, which exist now, and using them in the right combinations to satisfy the major requirements for both scientists and their support staff. For example, the Consortium’s lab notebook software systems will allow chemical structures and spectra embedded in existing products to be referenced and easily used, including products such as CAS’ SciFinder, Beilstein’s CrossFire, MDL’s ISIS, Daylight’s tools based on SMILES, Tripos, Oxford Molecular’s tools based on CommsManager, Galactic Industries’ GRAM/3D and many others. Scientists typically use more than one chemical structure handling product and must access specific subsets of the 50+ million compounds in databases spanning several of the aforementioned vendors. Analytical instrument data systems and LIMS are other classes of software that will eventually be integrated into the collaborative electronic notebook systems.

The Consortium has already started defining practical standards, benchmarks and best practices for procedures that meet all the major legal and regulatory requirements for open systems that manage electronic records in accurate, trustworthy, reliable ways.

The Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium has been operational since December 1995. It expects to deliver its first software and knowledge packages by early 1997. Interested companies with a need for electronic notebooks and team project data management and collaboration systems for R&D and testing labs are invited to join the Consortium now.

Consortium Members receive large software discounts, determine system specifications and get early access to software. Potential Members are encouraged to join before October 11, 1996, after which the membership rates will increase.

Qualified vendors of electronic lab notebooks, groupware, document and workflow management, LIMS and instrument interfacing systems, scientific information databases, and integration tools will be awarded contracts to develop and support the Consortium software.

Companies interested in becoming Consortium Members should contact:

Dr. Rich Lysakowski, The Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Consortium, 19 Bowen Avenue, Suite 100, Medford, Massachusetts 02155 USA. E-mail: , Tel: 781-395-3004. .

The Dow Chemical Company is the largest US chemical company, operating 94 manufacturing sites in 30 countries. Headquartered in Midland, Michigan, USA, Dow is diversified into basic commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, polymers, solvents, agrochemicals, consumer products, and environmental services.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is one of the largest suppliers of industrial gases and equipment worldwide. Headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Air Products maintains a strong partnership with companies in delivering gases for all applications, specialty and intermediate chemicals, and environmental and energy systems.

TeamScience, Inc. is the leading international firm in scientific software research, engineering, training, consulting and publishing. Headquartered in Medford, Massachusetts, USA, TeamScience focuses on consortia and partnerships to deliver scientific applications of groupware, electronic notebooks and records management systems, document management, LIMS, and instrument interfacing systems.

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