Arctoris Freenet as virtual laboratory for the UK life sciences

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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.