Accelrys, Inc., a US-based scientific enterprise R&D software and services company, has announced that it is enabling up to 400 scientists at 16 UK universities to evaluate the Contur Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN). Projected as a low-cost, easy-to-deploy and use ELN, the tool is offered by Accelrys' Contur Software subsidiary.
The programme, which runs through the end of September 2012, is seen to facilitate growing academic interest in improving quality of research, IP protection and collaboration through the use of ELNs. The scalability, rapid deployment and affordable price point of the Contur ELN is said to make robust ELN deployments a reality for academia.
Supported by the 'Dial-a-Molecule' Grand Challenge Network funded by the UK government's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Contur ELN programme is stated to be the largest multi-institutional academic ELN trial ever undertaken. It is also the first academic ELN trial spanning chemistry, biology and engineering and the only academic trial that enables cross-functional teams to collaborate effectively using a scalable cloud- and web-based ELN featuring Accelrys' chemistry capabilities.
