Subject: The Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium is entering the next phase of development operations

From: Rich Lysakowski <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 22:59:24 -0400

We are ending the period to increase membership in The Collaborative 
Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium (a.k.a. The R&D Team Computing 
Consortium) in order to begin the next phase of development operations.

If your organization is interested in or is already pursuing membership, 
please finalize your organization's commitment within the next three 
weeks.  See announcement below for more information.

We apologize for any possible duplication in mailing lists.

Thanks very much.

Rich Lysakowski, Ph.D., Director of R&D, 
The R&D Team Computing / Electronic Notebooks Consortium
TeamScience, Inc., 8 Pheasant Avenue, Sudbury, MA 01776
Phone: 508-443-4771; E-mail: [email-masked]
=========================================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  10/15/96

Contact:  Dr. Rich Lysakowski
The R&D Team Computing Consortium
(a.k.a. The Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Consortium)
phone: 508-443-4771
e-mail:  [email-masked]

8 Pheasant Avenue Sudbury, Massachusetts USA 01776
=========================================================

Industry Consortium Starting Next Phase To Create Advanced Software Systems 
for Scientific Laboratories

Consortium Developing Systems to Protect and Manage Intellectual 
Property Records for R&D

Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium is Closing New 
Member Period

Vendor-Neutral Initiative Uses Open Process to Replace Outmoded
R&D Project Data Management Systems

=========================================================

BOSTON, MA--The R&D Team Computing and Electronic Lab Notebooks Consortium 
(a.k.a. The Collaborative Electronic Lab Notebook Consortium) is closing 
its member recruitment phase within the next 30 days, to move completely 
into the next phase of operations by the end of November 1996.

The total number of companies is being limited to fifteen (15).  After the 
next 30-day period, new members shall be accepted on a very restricted 
basis, determined by their ability to contribute strongly to the 
Consortium's agenda.  There are now seven major corporations committed 
to the Consortium, with four more driving for final budgetary approvals.

The Consortium's agenda is to define and drive the creation of broad-based, 
industrial-strength software solutions and standards for R&D and testing 
labs.  The area of focus is R&D Team Computing, which includes functions for
electronic recordkeeping, electronic lab notebooks, R&D project data 
management and collaboration systems.  The Consortium will also specify and 
fund development of tools to make integration of existing applications into 
these systems much easier than is possible today.  The ultimate end users 
of the Consortium's tools are chemists, biologists, materials scientists, 
engineers, and the associated information technology, legal, records 
management, and corporate intellectual property staff.  

The Consortium is comprised of global R&D companies, manufacturers of 
pharmaceuticals, specialty and bulk chemicals, biotechnology, agrochemical, 
food and beverages, consumer goods, and materials.  The group is using an 
open, vendor-independent process to specify requirements, prioritize 
designs, and fund and work with the best qualified vendors to develop 
advanced software components for electronic notebooks and add-on products.  

"The current system of R&D project data management is archaic in the 
electronic age, because critical R&D information is too often locked away 
on paper" says Dr. Rich Lysakowski, a principal of TeamScience Inc, the 
software research and engineering project management firm that is leading 
and managing the consortium.  "Data need to be easily searched and shared 
by researchers or other authorized people with a need to know.  The entire 
system of managing information can be improved by keeping it electronic."

This international collaboration is delivering specifications for 
intellectual property protection using existing groupware, document
management, WWW, and other automation systems used in science now.  
The vendors selected by the Consortium will be building object-oriented, 
client/server applications for collaborative electronic notebooks and 
other specialized R&D applications to meet the diverse needs of its 
members at a reasonable price.  The consortium is selecting and funding 
vendors to rapidly develop modular and highly reusable software components 
that support recordkeeping in legally-defensible ways for regulated 
industries.

"We have conducted research with many companies and government 
agencies  over the past few years, including those of Electronic 
Records Consortium (ERC), legal firms in the American Intellectual
Property Law Association (AIPLA), the US FDA, the PTO, and 
the EPA to ensure that we have completely covered their requirements
and priorities.  The Consortium has a heavy focus on securing 
intellectual property electronically, in ways that are equal or 
better than paper systems.  The Consortium is delivering detailed 
engineering specifications, procedures, protocols, statements 
of best practices, plus supporting documentation for trustworthy and 
reliable electronic recordkeeping and records management.  These 
deliverables will help large companies in making the transition to fully 
electronic systems that speed access to corporate information," 
Dr. Lysakowski adds.

The R&D Team Computing Consortium is building on the work of the ERC, 
AIPLA, FDA, PTO, and other recent research projects done by agencies in 
Europe, Asia, and Australia.  It is pooling the resources of major 
end-user corporations to create legally-acceptable systems and 
applications for R&D intellectual property protection and management.  
Software for groupware, document and workflow management, LIMS and 
instrument interfacing, chemical and biological information databases, 
the World Wide Web, intelligent agents, and integration tools are ready 
to be applied, in far more integrated ways, to this unique set of R&D 
automation problems.  

"Building on top of well-tested industry-leading platforms already in 
wide use, rather than building from scratch, will let us meet our 
aggressive schedule.  We are emphasizing forward-looking tools and 
open standards such as CORBA, Java, the World Wide Web, and others 
that apply to lab and R&D applications," says Dr. Lysakowski.

Scientists have long felt the need for electronic laboratory notebooks 
as a way to minimize the tedium of laboratory work.  Currently, researchers 
often spend many hours per week capturing data in paper notebooks to 
document their work.  Paper notebooks are just one part of a much larger 
system for managing records, data and documents in research and development 
projects.  Scientists require flexible, open and interoperable software 
solutions for electronic laboratory notebooks, project data management, 
and collaboration.  These tools must come from several software markets 
simultaneously.  A major technical goal of the consortium is to pull 
together the necessary pieces, which exist already, and use them in the 
right combinations to satisfy the common requirements, and at the same time 
establish more software standards for open, integrated systems for R&D and 
testing laboratories.

Progress on these inevitable electronic lab software notebooks has 
been impeded by the relative immaturity of software technology 
and standards.  Also of concern is the lack of education on existing 
technology and procedures to address the legal and regulatory concerns 
around electronic recordkeeping and records management.  However, 
software, legal, and regulatory experts in the top Fortune 500 companies 
now agree that practical and prudent electronic ways are available to 
address the concerns.  Software and standards have matured to the point 
where global electronic lab notebooks and R&D team project data management 
systems are really just a logical next step beyond current World Wide Web, 
groupware, LIMS, and document management systems on the market today.

Vendors will be invited to join the Consortium before the end of 1996.  
The vendor selection process will begin shortly thereafter.  The field of 
vendors is still wide open.  Vendors of base platforms, applications, 
and tools are being chosen based on:  their market focus, success, and 
core competencies in the areas of interest; best-of-breed technologies; 
ability to meet the Consortium schedules and functionality; and other 
factors determined by the Consortium.

Vendors chosen will develop and support software clients, middleware, 
and base platform enhancements.  The user-driven Consortium will provide 
the necessary forum for Members to provide feedback to vendors to ensure 
that the emerging products fit end users' needs well.

Companies interested in becoming Consortium Members should contact:

Dr. Rich Lysakowski, Consortium Executive Director, 8 Pheasant Avenue, 
Sudbury, MA 01776.  E-mail: [email-masked], Tel: 508-443-4771.  
Fax: 508-440-9798.

Rich Lysakowski, Ph.D., Director of R&D, 
The R&D Team Computing and Electronic Notebooks Consortium
TeamScience, Inc., 8 Pheasant Avenue, Sudbury, MA 01776
Phone: 508-443-4771; E-mail: [email-masked]

Stepping Beyond Today's Automation Is Today's Task !!