How To Efficiently Organise Your Research Lab
Working in a research lab is a
distinctive experience. Each lab member works on their respective unique
research projects and is expected to carry out work efficiently and quickly.
Unlike corporate offices there are no clear management guidelines outlined to
work in a lab.
So, whenever someone wants to use communal equipments, reagents
and resources individual obligations can get confusing and there are chances
these being interpreted in a wrong manner.
To run a research lab properly, you need
to efficiently organise it but before you do that, there are some attributes of
a lab that you need to familiarise yourself with.
It’s not a walk in the park
Working in a lab can get very chaotic.
Since there are no managers to keep tabs on scientists, an individual has to
depend upon other people in the hope that they are carrying out their duties in
a proper manner.
Sometimes this results in happy and healthy environment and
sometimes all hell breaks loose.
It should not come as a surprise as to
why so many labs are always on the brink of chaos.
It becomes very difficult
for doctorate holders to work with grad students who have just joined the lab.
They also end up working under a lot of pressure to produce results and publish
their paper quickly; if they don’t, the funding for their research might stop
coming in.
Working in such an environment leads to less bonding among
colleagues.
Bigger the lab, bigger the problems
A small lab which employs few scientists
will work well since there might be only few issues among them and it becomes
easy to discuss any new plans that one might have.
But, if labs expand, so do
the problems. Small issues may end up making it difficult to work and if necessary steps aren’t taken, things can
go from bad to worse.
It is necessary that every lab member is organised and
aware of their individual responsibilities at work.
Here are some organising tips that will
make the workflow more efficient and smooth:
Allocating responsibility
Every lab member should be allocated
particular tasks. Making every member aware of their responsibility includes
assigning a particular area for them to keep clean, re-ordering reagents or
taking care of specific equipments.
If the tasks are clearly assigned to a
person, there will be no blame game in the workplace. Various responsibilities
will push members to carry out their duty with a sense of morale.
A lab will be
perfect if there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.
Make
sure that after the equipments are used, they are stored in their respective
places in a quality tote box where chemicals and reagents
are kept away from direct exposure.
A source of central information
To be up to date with everyday tasks, a
lab can incorporate online documentation to maintain records of everything.
An
option like Google Sheets may be used to keep up with everyone’s work.
Maintaining an ordering sheet, daily task sheet or scheduled maintenanceof
equipments sheet will help you keep up with your lab’s demands and schedules.
Use of special software
There are a variety of options available
for lab organisation to keep up with the workflow such as Quartzy, iLab Solutions and Labguru.
With lab management software at hand, the workflow at your lab can be
managed easily and chaos will turn into order.
Though such online management
tools are easy to use, a dedicated person is needed to maintain them
throughout.
Reports can be derived from this personnel on a weekly or a monthly
basis and a better line of communication can be implemented just the same to
make things easier.
Team work
You can use various organisational
strategies separately or in combination to maintain a research lab, but at the
end of the day team effort is essential to effectively run a lab.
No matter how
strict the rules and guidelines are there will always be someone who will not
be happy to co-ordinate with others in maintaining a positive environment
around lab.
Individuals working together can provide feedbacks and learning
opportunities to newcomers that will motivate and make them more productive.
We
hope the above given tips help you in organising your lab and taking your
research to the next level.
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