Labs Overview

Labs in AcaTrove represent research laboratory environments. Whether you run a wet lab, a computational lab, or a field research group, a AcaTrove lab provides a centralized workspace for managing personnel, experiments, equipment, inventory, safety protocols, and the documents that support your research.

What Is a Lab?

A lab is a persistent organizational space that mirrors your real-world research group. Unlike projects, which have defined start and end dates, a lab is an ongoing entity. Personnel join and leave, experiments come and go, and equipment is shared across studies -- but the lab itself remains the stable home for all of that activity.

Labs are designed around the daily operational needs of a research group:

• Personnel Management -- Track who is in your lab, their roles, appointment dates, funding sources, and effort percentages.
• Experiments and Tests -- Create experiments with structured tasks, define test runs with steps and signoffs, and manage dependencies between activities.
• Inventory Management -- Track consumables and supplies, receive low-stock alerts, and monitor items approaching expiration.
• Equipment Booking -- Schedule shared instruments, organize equipment into categories, and create smart groups for common booking patterns.
• Safety Protocols -- Maintain safety documentation, track compliance, and ensure all lab members have completed required training.
• Lab Chat -- Use Multi-Doc Chat scoped to all papers associated with the lab.

Lab Structure

Every lab in AcaTrove includes the following sections, accessible via tabs on the lab's detail page:

• Overview -- Lab name, description, principal investigator, and key metrics.
• Personnel -- Current and former lab members with their roles and appointment details.
• Experiments -- Active and archived experiments with their associated tasks and test runs.
• Inventory -- Items organized by category, with stock levels and expiration tracking.
• Equipment -- Bookable instruments and devices with scheduling calendars.
• Safety -- Protocols, compliance documents, and training records.
• Documents -- Papers, datasets, and reports linked to the lab.
• Activity -- A feed of recent changes and updates across all lab sections.

Draft Mode and Soft Delete

Labs support draft mode, allowing you to set up a lab incrementally before making it visible to all members. While in draft mode, only the lab creator can see and edit the lab.

When you delete a lab, AcaTrove performs a soft delete -- the lab is hidden from normal views but retained in the system. This supports legal hold requirements and allows recovery if a lab is deleted accidentally. Administrators can permanently purge soft-deleted labs when appropriate.

Navigating Labs

Access your labs from the sidebar under Work > Labs or by navigating to /labs. The labs list shows all labs you belong to or manage. Use search and filters to find labs by name, PI, or discipline.

Tips

• Create one lab per research group, not one per project. Labs are meant to be long-lived and encompass multiple projects.
• Link projects to labs when the project uses lab resources, equipment, or personnel.
• Use draft mode when setting up a new lab to avoid sending premature notifications to team members.