Scalable investigator-oriented data management

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase I SBIR project will design, prototype and test a new collaborative, investigator-oriented research data management system. The system will be designed to work with a commercially successful, personal research data management software, Catalyzer, which was developed by consultants to the project. The proposed system is intended to serve the data management needs of individual research labs, core facilities, and multi-lab research consortia. The Catalyzer desktop software is a rich application for organizing, annotating, and managing a single researcher's data, with specific support for a range of data types including imaging, cytometry, and electrophysiology. This project will design, prototype and test the Catalyzer Workgroup Server (CWS), a scalable multi-user server that complements the existing desktop application, Catalyzer. We will focus the project on the needs of a few specific partners for design specification and testing; and the new system will be alpha-tested broadly by similar organizations already using the Catalyzer desktop tool. For initial feasibility testing, we will include scientists using a range of experimental methods in corporate and publicly-funded institutions. This will ensure that the solution is both widely applicable and grounded in market need. In the second phase of the project, we will then narrow the focus to a small number of core facilities.