Is your project ready to move ahead?

Hold off on listing features for a moment. Look at whether there is data worth organizing, who will keep using it, what can be made public, and who stays responsible. The six situations below cover most of what comes up in a first conversation.

Scattered data that needs internal reuse

Years of data exist, but every use starts with finding it again

· Samples, projects, results, and supplementary tables are scattered across members and storage locations
· After personnel changes, the origin, fields, and analysis steps of earlier data are hard to pick up
· The group needs a stable internal entry point for finding, understanding, and reusing data

If this sounds closer to your situationAssess an internal group resource first, starting with the most frequently used data.

Original work ready for public sharing

A clear thematic body of work, ready for peers to understand and use

· A relatively complete data collection has formed around a species, disease, cohort, or research theme
· You can state which content can be made public and which needs restriction or de-identification
· There are concrete public-use tasks, such as browsing, downloading, citing, or collaborative review

If this sounds closer to your situationAssess a public thematic data resource first, confirming ownership, licensing, and future update sources.

Multiple projects and omics layers to integrate

Plenty of data, but the scientific questions and evidence links are not yet organized

· Explainable links exist across projects, batches, or omics layers
· Comparisons and traceability are needed by sample, gene, pathway, or research question
· Beyond existing results, new use cases after integration can be spelled out

If this sounds closer to your situationDesign the resource boundary and evidence relationships first, then decide between an internal resource or a research-enhancement track.

An existing platform that is hard to maintain or extend

Revive what already exists before adding features

· A database, thematic site, or analysis tool exists, but access, deployment, or updates are unstable
· The earlier data still has value; migration and restructuring matter more than starting from zero
· New features, an environment migration, or clear maintenance ownership are needed

If this sounds closer to your situationStart with an inventory of the legacy platform's assets and data portability, then scope the upgrade.

An analysis tool to bring online

The method or scripts work, but users cannot reach them reliably

· A pipeline, scripts, or reusable results exist and the user tasks are fairly clear
· Input, computation, result interpretation, and download need to be organized into an online path
· The basic conditions for data security, compute resources, and version maintenance can be stated

If this sounds closer to your situationAssess putting the tool online or integrating it with a thematic resource; a full database is not the default.

Only a vague idea so far

Spell out the research task before deciding whether to build

· There is only a rough idea of a website or database; the data boundary is still unclear
· Users, scope of openness, and who maintains the result are not yet decided
· It is still unclear whether outside development would serve a real research or collaboration task

If this sounds closer to your situationWe do not recommend building right away; start with a data inventory, direction review, and feasibility assessment.

Not sure? Start by describing what you have

Describe the study subject, the data at hand, who will use it, and what is giving you the most trouble. We will suggest a direction and tell you which conditions are still unclear.

See how this project could go See common directions