Lab-in-a-box

This project aims to support the digital independence of research projects, laboratories, or individuals, by providing means to self-host digital services that direct support research processes or aid their coordination.

Arguably, Microsoft’s Excel isn’t the most widely used tool for research data storage and analysis because it is good, but rather because it so ubiquitous that a research can trust that it will be provided in any relevant context. At the same time, research institution struggle to support scientist with tools that more aligned with good scientific practices and ambitions like the FAIR principles.

Digital independence means that researchers control their data formats, tools, and infrastructure so analyses remain reproducible, verifiable, and resilient to vendor lock‑in or platform changes; by keeping datasets, code, and metadata in open, well‑documented standards and under researchers’ governance, scientific findings can be reliably audited, reused, and extended over time—strengthening transparency, reducing hidden biases, and enabling robust cumulative progress.

In this project, we explore free and open-source software solutions regarding their utility in the facilitating day-to-day research activities, and aim to lower the threshold for adopting suitable solutions by making their self-hosting more feasible for individual and small groups of dedicated people.

Part of #

• Psychoinformatics

Objectives #

• Self-hosted research IT infrastructure (Deliverable)

Outputs #

• Lab-in-a-box deployments