Personnel Management

A lab's strength depends on its people. AcaTrove provides tools to track every member of your research group, from principal investigators to undergraduate assistants, with detailed records of their roles, appointment dates, funding sources, and effort allocations.

Adding Lab Members

1. Open your lab and navigate to the Personnel tab.
2. Click Add Member.
3. Search for the person by name or email. If they have a AcaTrove account, select their profile. Otherwise, send an email invitation.
4. Configure the member's details:
   • Role -- The organizational role within the lab (see below).
   • Collaborator Type -- A more specific classification such as "Graduate Research Assistant," "Visiting Scholar," or "Lab Technician."
   • Appointment Start Date -- When the member joined or will join the lab.
   • Appointment End Date -- Optional. Set this for temporary members such as visiting scholars or rotation students.
   • Funding Source -- The grant, fellowship, or institutional fund supporting the member's work.
   • Effort Percentage -- The percentage of the member's time dedicated to this lab (e.g., 50% for a student split between two labs).
5. Click Add.

The member receives a notification and gains access to the lab according to their assigned role.

Add member dialog with role, appointment, and funding fields

Roles

Lab roles determine what each member can see and do:

• Principal Investigator (PI) -- Full control over the lab, including settings, personnel management, and all operational features. A lab typically has one PI, though co-PI arrangements are supported.
• Manager -- Can manage personnel, equipment, inventory, and experiments. Cannot change lab settings or delete the lab.
• Researcher -- Can create and manage experiments, book equipment, and access all documents. Cannot manage other personnel.
• Student -- Can view assigned experiments and tasks, book equipment, and access shared documents. Cannot create experiments or manage inventory.
• Observer -- Read-only access to lab content. Useful for external collaborators or auditors who need visibility without edit permissions.

Appointment Tracking

AcaTrove maintains a record of each member's tenure in the lab:

• Active members have a start date and no end date (or an end date in the future).
• Past members have an end date in the past. Their records are preserved in the Personnel tab under a "Former Members" section.
• Upcoming members have a start date in the future. They appear in the list with an "Upcoming" badge.

This timeline view helps PIs plan for transitions and ensures institutional reporting reflects accurate personnel histories.

Effort and Funding Tracking

For each lab member, you can record:

• Effort percentage -- How much of their working time is allocated to this lab. This is especially important for personnel who split time between multiple labs or projects.
• Funding source -- The specific grant or fund that supports the member. Tracking funding at the personnel level helps with grant reporting and ensures you know which team members are affected when a funding source expires.

These fields are informational and do not enforce limits. They serve as a reference for the PI and for institutional reporting.

Personnel list showing roles, effort percentages, and funding sources

Updating and Removing Members

• Update -- Click on any member's name to edit their role, collaborator type, appointment dates, funding source, or effort percentage.
• Remove -- Click the options menu next to a member's name and select Remove from Lab. The member loses access, but their historical contributions (experiment records, comments, bookings) are preserved.
• Transfer role -- If a student graduates to a postdoc role, update their role directly rather than removing and re-adding them. This preserves their continuity in the lab's records.

Tips

• Set appointment end dates for all temporary members. This helps you anticipate turnover and plan for onboarding replacements.
• Record funding sources diligently. When a grant nears its end date, you can quickly see which personnel are affected.
• Review effort percentages periodically. They tend to drift as priorities shift, and accurate records support grant progress reports.