Arctoris Freenet as virtual laboratory for the UK life sciences

The life sciences are a crucial pillar of the UK's prosperity and scientific and industrial competitiveness. There are about half a million students enrolled in biological, biomedical, chemical and related courses (Universities UK 2015). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to large-scale disruption both in scientific training as well as academic R&D efforts, that are even more important under the current circumstances, where educating and training the next generation of researchers and developing new diagnostics and therapeutics is critical.

Arctoris Ltd is an Oxford-based company that developed and operates a fully automated, remote-controlled laboratory for life sciences research. Our robotic facility conducts cell-based, molecular biology, and biochemistry experiments for researchers at academic centres, universities, biotechnology companies and pharmaceutical corporations.

Thanks to full automation, Arctoris' robotic facility is not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing to conduct life-saving research for researchers in academia and industry. At the same time, Arctoris has already implemented a sector-defining proprietary IT infrastructure that enables researchers to design experiments, remote-control the laboratory online, and to interrogate data in real-time.

Within the proposed project, Arctoris Ltd would rapidly design and implement Arctoris Freenet, an Open Science software solution for a virtual collaboration space highly integrated with and in addition to the existing automated laboratory that enables continued online education combined with lab-based training in the life sciences. Thereby, Arctoris Freenet provides the tools required for academic researchers to seamlessly collaborate, train, supervise, and conduct experiments, even in a lockdown - removing one of the greatest barriers to continued life sciences education and progress. Concretely, the new portal to go online within 5 months will enable academic researchers to continue mentoring and supervising their PhD students; life sciences students to learn new skills and continue their degrees; and universities to continue tracking programme progress.

The Arctoris Freenet will contain a set of software tools that enable secure and convenient research collaboration and training within a life sciences context, providing half a million students with an opportunity to continue their training, and become fully skilled and proficient life sciences researchers.