Partner Article

Research firm spots gap in the market

A market research company has helped create software which could revolutionise the way scientific research is analysed, published and shared around the world.

Newcastle-based Marketwise Strategies has carried out proof of concept market research to help launch pioneering software company Inkspot Science Ltd., whose platform provides an online collaborative environment where scientists can carry out and share their work.

Working entirely in private, collaborating with colleagues or publishing openly, scientists can also gain access to extensive scientific data without needing to set up and maintain their own systems.

Inkspot also allows them to convert data into meaningful and replicable analysis, or to start their research papers as a ‘digital lab notebook’, which can then be peer reviewed and commented on.

Inkspot enlisted the help of Marketwise Strategies to help it identify the size of the market, acquire an understanding of how scientists currently ‘do science’ and discover the potential revenue models that are currently acceptable to scientists in both commercial and academic environments.

Graham Soult, Marketwise Strategies senior research executive, said: “The benefits that this software will create for scientists could be pivotal for medical and scientific research.

“Our research for Inkspot delved deeper into whom they were trying to reach, and asked questions that they may not have thought about. As a result, we were able to advise Inkspot to incorporate those vital details in order to develop a more bespoke and marketable product.”

Inkspot Science chief operating officer Joanna Berry said: “The report that we received from Marketwise Strategies added huge value to the project by supplying us with a meaningful analysis of the statistics. It’s a huge change from knowing the statistics to understanding what they mean.

“We discovered for example that scientists don’t like the word ‘blog’, preferring instead to use the term ‘lab notebook’. Something that would seem so small is fundamentally important to us to help engage those scientists into using the software.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .