ELabFTW - Data Sheet

ELabFTW – A Modern Electronic Lab Notebook and Lab Management System

Overview

ELabFTW is a powerful, modern electronic lab notebook (ELN) and laboratory information management system (LIMS) built to meet the needs of today’s scientific environments. Originally designed by researchers, for researchers, its flexibility makes it a great fit for almost any lab, delivering a secure, intuitive, and feature-rich platform that brings structure, compliance, and collaboration to scientific data management. ELabFTW combines flexibility with robust functionality, making it ideal for academic institutions and research organizations, as well as analytical low/medium-throughput labs or startups.

Key Features

Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN)

At the core of ELabFTW are its comprehensive electronic lab notebook features. These are based around three main areas:

Experiments (tests, assays)
Resources (people, instruments, inventory items, clients, etc.)
Schedule

Labs can document their experiments using a rich text editor that supports text formatting, embedded images, tables, code blocks, and even LaTeX for equations. Every entry is automatically time-stamped, ensuring data integrity and traceability. The version control system allows users to track changes over time, preserving the original data while enabling iterative updates. With tagging and categorization, users can easily organize and retrieve their records, making information more accessible and meaningful. Use experiments to create whatever tests you need to your exact specifications, with fully documented protocols and real-time status management.

Use the Resources feature to manage all the moving parts in your lab. Get creative to ensure they match your own unique needs. Resources are color-coded for easy recognition, and there is no limit to the entities that can be added, from consumables to instruments, freezers, fridges, cabinets, etc. to staff and even suppliers, clients, subcontracted labs - anything you need to manage.

Any resources or experiments can be placed on the calendar and scheduled to help make planning and execution of workflows much more organized and efficient, reducing confusion and improving turnaround time.

Inventory Management

ELabFTW also features a robust inventory module designed to simplify the tracking of reagents, chemicals, biological samples, equipment, and more. Items can be categorized, searched, and tagged with custom metadata fields, giving labs full flexibility to manage their resources. Barcode and QR code support makes physical inventory tracking quick and efficient. Whether managing consumables or long-term assets, the inventory system helps maintain organization, reduce waste, and ensure that critical supplies are always available.

Protocol Templates

To help standardize workflows and promote reproducibility, ELabFTW includes a template system for experimental protocols. Researchers can create detailed templates that can be reused for recurring procedures, significantly reducing time spent on repetitive documentation. These templates ensure consistency across team members and experiments, helping labs produce more reliable and repeatable results.

ELabFTW Molecule Drawing Tool

Security & Compliance

ELabFTW is built with data security and compliance in mind. It meets GDPR requirements for data protection and offers features to support 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, such as electronic signatures and audit trails. All communications are encrypted using HTTPS, and user authentication can be configured with advanced options like LDAP and SSO, standard with LabLynx OpenSocial. With the choice between local or cloud deployment, labs can maintain full control over their data infrastructure and access policies. And with LabLynx secure cloud hosting, you can rest assured that all data are fully backed up regularly and your IT infrastructure is fully secure and maintained.

Collaboration & Access Control

Effective collaboration is essential in modern research, production, QA/QC or other laboratory operations. ELabFTW is built to facilitate teamwork while maintaining precise control over data access. Users can assign roles with different permission levels—such as administrator, principal investigator, standard user, or guest—ensuring that each team member has appropriate access to experiments, resources and scheduling. Teams can share entries and collaborate on projects in real-time, with built-in tools like calendars and scheduling helping to coordinate lab activities.

Extensibility & Integration

ELabFTW is designed for extensibility, offering a RESTful API that allows integration with other digital tools and platforms. It supports Docker-based deployment, making installation and updates simple and efficient. Labs with specialized needs can use plugins or custom scripts to tailor the system to their workflows, and authentication can be handled using internal databases, LDAP, or single sign-on methods.

ELabFTW API UI

ELabFTW Open Cloning Integration

Add-On Apps available from LabLynx to Complement your ELabFTW ELN

LabLynx offers several other applications that can be combined with your ELabFTW ELN to meet even more of your lab's data management needs:

sciCloud.net - Secure & Compliant application hosting platform (comes standard with ELabFTW ELN)

OpenSocial - Enterprise Single Sign-on (SSO) & Identity Access Management (IAM)

LabDrive - Collaborative Scientific Data Management System (SDMS)

LabVia - Laboratory Automation, Integration & Laboratory Execution System (LES)

LabVista - Laboratory Reporting, Analytics & Data Visualization Dashboards (BI)

myLabCare - Lab Portal, submit samples, retrieve reports & results

ELabLiMS - LIMS/LIS for every type of laboratory

LiMShelp - Services & Support Platform

Technical Specifications

ELabFTW runs on a web-based platform and is compatible with all major operating systems through a modern web browser. It supports multilingual interfaces. Whether deployed in a private lab server or in LabLynx's SSO, secure, professionally maintained, backed-up managed cloud environment, ELabFTW offers scalability, flexibility, and reliability.

Benefits

ELabFTW provides numerous advantages for all laboratory environments:

Centralization of lab data in a secure digital notebook
Enhanced collaboration through shared access and live updates
Improved reproducibility thanks to templated protocols and version tracking
Simplified compliance with electronic signatures and audit trails
Reduced waste and overhead via efficient inventory tracking and organization

Use Cases

ELabFTW is suited for a wide range of R&D and analytical settings, including:

Academic Labs: Manage student projects, publish reproducible research, and collaborate across departments.
Pharmaceutical and Biotech Companies: Ensure compliance, protect IP, and streamline your lab's unique workflows.
Clinical Research Organizations: Maintain regulatory documentation and protocols.
Materials and Environmental Science Labs: Track complex experiments and manage diverse inventories.

Licensing & Support

ELabFTW is accessible to any lab, no matter your budget. Affordable subscriptions are available and scalable, whether you need to keep everything in-house or opt for our secure AWS-based cloud hosting. And LabLynx provides professional support services directly, including training on functions and features, installation assistance, and custom development.

Get Started Today

Discover how ELabFTW can transform your lab’s data management. Whether you're looking to increase efficiency, ensure compliance, or foster collaboration, ELabFTW offers the tools to modernize your lab, whether it's research, production, commercial testing or anything else.