TSUKUBA, Japan, Jan 19, 2026 – (ACN Newswire) – Materials analysis generates huge quantities of data, however the info usually exists in manufacturer-specific codecs and the terminology is inconsistent, making it tough to mixture, evaluate, and reuse. Traditionally, researchers have needed to spend appreciable time on tedious duties, akin to format conversion, metadata task, and traits extraction. These further steps could make researchers reluctant to share data, hindering the development of data-driven work. The downside is made much more acute by the area’s rising reliance on AI-driven materials discovery, which requires high-quality datasets.
To tackle this downside, researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) have developed Research Data Express (RDE), a extremely versatile data administration system for materials scientists. Published in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: Methods, RDE routinely interprets experimental data from uncooked information and manually inputted measurements. It then restructures and shops this info in a format with enhanced readability.
“RDE significantly reduces the burden of routine data processing for researchers and enhances data findability, interoperability, reusability (the FAIR principles), and traceability,” explains Jun Fujima, corresponding writer and researcher at NIMS’s Materials Data Platform. “We hope this will promote collaborative, data-driven materials research.”
Many programs of the same function often “define” the data format. In distinction, the RDE’s core innovation “Dataset Template” defines and directs how data from several types of experiments must be processed. For instance, if a researcher uploads spreadsheets of X-ray measurements from completely different sources, the Dataset Template could be configured to interpret them. The system then routinely performs superior analyses and creates visualizations to offer an instantaneous overview. Multiple templates could be ready for completely different materials analysis themes, permitting for most flexibility in data administration. A customized template will also be simply ready by particular person researchers if essential. Many templates have already been ready and shared amongst customers.
“RDE’s unique approach allows researchers to freely define data structures tailored to their instruments, while enabling the system to perform massive data structuring and metadata extraction automatically,” says Fujima.
Since its launch in January 2023, RDE has been broadly adopted throughout Japan’s materials analysis group, demonstrating its scalability. To date, it has over 5,000 customers, with greater than 1,900 Dataset Templates for varied experimental strategies applied, over 16,000 datasets created, and greater than three million data information accrued. The system serves as a data infrastructure for main nationwide initiatives, together with the Materials Research DX Platform initiative promoted by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The NIMS crew has launched an open-source software program toolkit (RDEToolKit) to encourage use of the system inside the analysis group.
Further info
Jun Fujima
National Institute for Materials Science
[email protected]
Paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/27660400.2025.2597702
About Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: Methods (STAM-M)
STAM Methods is an open entry sister journal of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (STAM), and focuses on emergent strategies and instruments for bettering and/or accelerating materials developments, akin to methodology, equipment, instrumentation, modeling, high-through put data assortment, materials/course of informatics, databases, and programming. https://www.tandfonline.com/STAM-M
Dr Kazuya Saito
STAM Methods Publishing Director
[email protected]
Press launch distributed by Asia Research News for Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.
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Source: Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: Methods (STAM-M)
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