Research Space, provider of the RSpace electronic research notebook and sample management system, today announced an integration with the iRODS, a data discovery, workflow automation, secure collaboration, and data virtualization platform, to ensure the integrity of links between RSpace and the wide range of resources it connects with via the virtualized file tracking and metadata management enabled by iRODS.

RSpace is a digital research content creation and management system which integrates with a range of data sources and outputs such as file storage systems, specialist research tools, and generic apps like Microsoft 365 and Slack to enhance researcher workflow. The integration with iRODS addresses the Achilles’ heel of this otherwise powerful ecosystem; namely that a dependence on file paths results in a risk to the integrity of links between RSpace and connected tools. The integration with iRODS addresses this weakness by utilizing the capability of iRODS to assign identifiers to files. The next stage of the integration will focus on enabling support for management of metadata associated with content created and managed in RSpace.

 “We were excited to see the level of interest in an iRODS-RSpace integration at this year’s iRODS User Group Meeting. The initial integration addresses the ‘broken links problem’ universities view as a major concern with digital research platforms that enable connectivity with multiple resources,” said Terrell Russell, Executive Director of the iRODS Consortium. “Future work utilizing iRODS’ metadata management capability will make iRODS-RSpace an even more compelling end to end file and data solution supporting integrated management of files, data, and metadata. This will serve the growing demand for a comprehensive data management solution we’re seeing in universities around the world.”

 “We’ve been interested in a collaboration with iRODS for a long time,” said Rory Macneil, Chief Executive of Research Space. The trigger to move forward was a recent tender for electronic research notebooks issued by a leading European university. The core requirement was for ‘an electronic research notebook linked to external storage and data management solutions designed so as to ensure maximum integrity of the links between the ERN and the external solutions via integration with the iRODS virtual file management system’. Following success with the tender and growing awareness of the iRODS integration we’ve seen a surge in interest from other universities that understand the importance of a comprehensive approach to research data management.”

About the iRODS Consortium

The iRODS Consortium is a membership-based organization that guides development and support of iRODS as free open-source software for data discovery, workflow automation, secure collaboration, and data virtualization. The iRODS Consortium provides a production-ready iRODS distribution and iRODS professional integration services, training, and support. The consortium is administered by founding member RENCI, a research institute for applications of cyberinfrastructure located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

About Research Space

Research Space provides a digital research platform comprised of tightly integrated electronic research notebook and sample management modules. RSpace integrates with a range of data sources and outputs such as file storage systems, specialist research tools, and generic apps like Microsoft 365 and Slack to enhance researcher workflows. The RSpace ERN & Inventory platform is currently in use at institutions across the globe.

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