The qPMO network: quality management tools to improve research efficiency, reproducibility, data management and dissemination

Quality disciplines have been widely used for decades in industrial and business fields. It is only in recent times, however, that Quality management and approaches have received proper attention in life science. In particular, the need for Quality standards in non-regulated research is a matter of considerable current debate inside international research community. The Quality and Project Management OpenLab (qPMO) is a research network involving 5 different Institutes and two Departmentes of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), aimed at realizing a Total Quality Management (TQM) model for Life Sciences laboratories. This TQM OpenLab model will act as a uniform environment in which strong, innovation-oriented research projects can be designed and developed according to international Quality standards and with the planning of Horizon 2020. Our experience demonstrates that Quality management tools can strongly support the management of scientific research through disseminating knowledge, best practice and interoperability and enhance of the economic value of project and research outcomes.