Publication on design and mechanisms of the BBMRI-ERIC Negotiator

A new publication is out on the BBMRI-ERIC Negotiator, written by members of our Common Service IT team.

One of the main challenges for biobank users is to find relevant resources using cataloging and search services, as these often do not contain the information needed by the researchers to decide if the resource has relevant material/data. Hence, the researcher is typically left with too many resources to explore and investigate. In addition, resources often have complex procedures for accessing holdings, particularly for depletable biological materials.

This article focuses on designing a system for effective negotiation of access to holdings, in which a researcher can approach many resources simultaneously, while giving each resource team the ability to implement their own mechanisms to check if the material/data are available and to decide if access should be provided. BBMRI-ERIC has developed and implemented an access and negotiation tool called the BBMRI-ERIC Negotiator.

Read the article to learn how we did it.