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Launch of UK DRI Portal and Research Collaboration Service

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We are today excited to launch our brand-new UK DRI Portal to facilitate the sharing of information, news and events across the institute. The Portal, an intranet for all UK DRI staff, will sit at the centre of the recently rolled-out Research Collaboration Service - a suite of cloud-based software platforms designed to digitally unite researchers and support staff across the seven research centres.

The Portal is clean in its aesthetic, providing user-friendly and intuitive menus, areas and search tools to help staff rapidly locate the information they require. Highlights of the Portal include a secure archive of past event recordings and a fully searchable equipment database. Information on the latest internal and external funding calls, communities and themes within the institute, and branded templates, guides and policies are also available. n addition to the most current news and events, there are also sections providing news and information on the key areas of ‘Translation & Innovation’ and ‘Animal Models’.

Since the inception of the UK DRI, we have always aimed to take an innovative ‘digital-first’ approach to our work. Dr Adrian Ivinson, UK DRI Director (Operations)

Together with the new Portal, the Research Collaboration Service is composed of complementary software platforms including Slack (message platform), Dropbox (file storage), Zoom (video conferencing) and Labstep (digital lab book) that provide UK DRI researchers and support staff with the means to easily store and share data, and communicate with colleagues across the institute. The Research Collaboration Service is managed by UK DRI HQ and the IT team at The Francis Crick Institute, who have a wealth of experience in providing digital services to their own researchers.

Faisel Farooq, UK DRI Digital Transformation Manager, said:

“Over the past year, we have worked with our UK DRI colleagues and the Crick team to understand the needs of our researchers and staff and have now brought together a suite of software resources that will transform the way we share information and ideas. The Research Collaboration Service complement the digital resources provided by our host universities, but crucially they promote stronger collaboration across the seven geographically dispersed centres.

It can be daunting to adopt new digital applications, but we hope that researchers will quickly see the advantages of these services. We will of course be on hand to help people with the set-up and any issues they encounter.”

Dr Adrian Ivinson, UK DRI Director (Operations), added:

“Since the inception of the UK DRI, we have always aimed to take an innovative ‘digital-first’ approach to our work. I’m delighted that we are now able to support our researchers with the latest digital resources to aid their ground-breaking science, and I encourage all to make the most of the opportunities these present. Our Research Collaboration Service and the new Portal are an essential component of our vision of a coherent national institute distributed across multiple sites.

More information on the Research Collaboration Service
  • Accessing the Research Collaboration Service

    The Portal and Research Collaboration Service can be accessed via a UK DRI Single-Sign-On (SSO) service, meaning that researchers and support staff use their new, personal UK DRI email credentials to log in to all platforms. 

    All the software platforms can be accessed via a website browser, however, for best user experience, we recommend downloading the desktop applications for Slack, Zoom and Dropbox.

    The login credentials for UK DRI researchers and support staff were sent out over the summer via email, and a ‘Getting Started’ guide is available. If researchers encounter any issues, they can contact Digital Transformation Manager, Faisel Farooq, via email (faisel.farooq@ukdri.ac.uk) or Slack.

  • Slack

    Slack is used to communicate, collaborate and network with UK DRI colleagues. The platform essentially provides a chat room for the whole UK DRI, designed to replace email as our primary method of communication. The UK DRI workspace is organised into channels for group discussions around topics of interests and allows for private messages to other researchers and support staff to share information, files, and more - all in one place. Slack also acts as a member directory for all UK DRI staff. External researchers can be given single-channel access to facilitate collaboration beyond UK DRI.

  • Zoom

    Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service that can be used to virtually meet with others - either by video or audio-only or both, all while conducting live chats. The service also lets you record those sessions to view later. Each lab group is allocated one Zoom Education (Pro) account which allows meetings with up to 100 attendees for a maximum of 24 hours. In addition to smaller meetings, UK DRI HQ has the ability to run webinars for >500 participants and recordings of these events can be found on the UK DRI Portal.

  • Dropbox

    Dropbox is a file-sharing platform which gives every UK DRI researcher and support staff member unlimited file storage and the means to easily share their research, spreadsheets, protocols etc with the rest of their lab team or the wider UK DRI community. Each lab group is set up with their own private folder while community folders (e.g. themes) store files for wider UK DRI access. Dropbox works seamlessly within Slack to allow staff to send files rapidly while in conversation.

  • Labstep

    Labstep is a flexible research platform that connects user’s digital lab notebook, inventory, applications and data in one collaborative workspace. The electronic lab book service allows researchers to record materials, experimental procedures, results and metadata, simplifying the documentation of experiments and research. Detailed protocols can be also be inputted and shared across the rest the UK DRI community if required. Labstep integrates with other applications including R, Python, ChemDraw, SnapGene and LabVIEW.