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The systematic recording and management of experimental data in academic life science research remains an open problem. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) engaged in a program of deploying both an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) and a laboratory information management system (LIMS) six years ago, encountering a host of fundamental questions at the institutional level and within each laboratory. Here, based on our experience, we aim to share with research institute managers, principal investigators (PIs), and any scientists involved in a combined ELN-LIMS deployment helpful tips and tools, with a focus on surrounding yourself with the right people and the right software at the right time. In this article we describe the resources used, the challenges encountered, key success factors, and the results obtained at each phase of our project. Finally, we discuss the current and next challenges we face, as well as how our experience leads us to support the creation of a new position in the research group: the laboratory data manager. (Full article...)
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