Why Research Teams Waste 40% of Their Time – And How to Get It Back
June 25, 2025 | by Will Oemler
In the world of biotech and life sciences, time is discovery. But many research teams are losing up to 40% of their time to work that has nothing to do with actual science.
A Harvard Business Review study found that knowledge workers (including scientists) spend 41% of their time on tasks that don’t require their expertise. Another report estimates that researchers spend over 42% of their time on administrative overhead — like reporting, grant writing, and chasing down files. That’s two full days per week not spent on experiments, analysis, or innovation.
Why is this happening?
Here’s what we hear from scientists and R&D teams all the time:
- “I waste hours trying to find old datasets across email, SharePoint, and Dropbox.”
- “We use Benchling, but half our team tracks work in Excel that no one else can see.”
- “There are six different tools for one project — none of them connected.”
With no connective layer, data is siloed. Context gets lost. Work gets duplicated. Institutional memory walks out the door when someone leaves.
A smarter way to link it all together
That’s why we built Lab Atlas — not as yet another tool, but as the glue between your tools. Lab Atlas helps teams:
- Find the right data fast — across ELNs, storage, and docs
- Standardize project tracking — with consistent study/experiment IDs
- Reduce duplication and confusion — with a single, searchable view of work
- See the full picture — with a centralized dashboard that connects experiments, files, protocols, and metadata
You probably already have the tools. You just need the map.
When your data is organized and findable, your scientists move faster. Your programs stay on track. And your knowledge compounds over time. If this sounds familiar — we’d love to show you how we’re helping teams like yours cut down on chaos and focus more on the science.
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