“This is not your grandfather’s or grandmother’s national lab system anymore.”

Despite mounting economic, technological, organizational, and personnel challenges, lab managers are under the gun to produce results faster at lower cost—and to hit all their ROI targets.

Labs have come a long way since Thomas Alva Edison’s improvisations with fireplace chimneys to exhaust noxious fumes at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, research facilities in the late nineteenth century.

With freezers and fume hoods running nonstop, it’s no surprise that lab facilities hog more resources than do most other workspaces. 

With headlines screaming about hacking, of the latest James Bond movie Skyfall most recently, of national and nuclear weapons laboratories not so long ago, and of businesses and individuals almost on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that worldwide information technology (IT) security spending is set to hit $77 billion in 2015—almost 8 percent more than this year’s $71 billion, according to IT researcher Gartner, Inc. 

"We will put our best team on this one,” is a common refrain in many circles and is regularly heard in laboratories as directors seek to reassure customers and other stakeholders about delivering accurate and reliable results by deadlines. 

In the history of technology, The Manhattan Project and the United States space program are considered two of the most stellar accomplishments of the American scientific research enterprise. Both were challenge-driven research and development endeavors—and both employed multidisciplinary teams.

Job satisfaction and morale among researchers relying on government grants were body slammed by the sequestration—at least $1.3 trillion in across-the-board funding cuts were mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act for 2013 through 2021.

Evaluating the move from in-house laboratories to independent providers

Latest mobile offerings deliver greater efficiency, security, and compliance

Science has always been the paramount focus of laboratory managers. But that is no longer sufficient. Now, lab leaders need to be profoundly conversant with the business side of their operations as well.

The escalating competition for research funding

The best mobile lab apps have ties to instrumentation and are freely downloadable

Lab managers make no secret of their desire for a bigger serving of commitment and cooperation from their staff scientists and technicians. However, dealing with such highly trained and knowledgeable workers can prove challenging. Managers need to create environments in which their staff can become energized, motivated, cooperative, and committed.