Practical evaluation of SEEK and OpenBIS for biological data management in SynthSys; first report

Abstract

The project evaluated two existing data management systems for a small set of users, who represent diverse needs within the SynthSys Centre, in order to inform wider adoption for biological research. SEEK’s strengths are support for the Investigation, Study, Assay (ISA) standard and a fine grained access control. This makes SEEK an excellent tool for collaborative work and publishing results. OpenBIS is well suited for automatic metadata processing and incorporation into analysis workflows. Both data management systems provided useful and complementary functionality, so our recommendation is that both are hosted for use in SynthSys. This also aligns well with the EU FAIRDOM project which is currently integrating SEEK and OpenBIS into one platform.