Running a modern research laboratory requires more than maintaining sophisticated instruments. Researchers need to complete training, obtain access, schedule and operate equipment, navigate billing, and more. For large, shared facilities, coordinating these activities across hundreds of instruments and thousands of users can be a significant undertaking. As research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, another challenge is emerging: finding the right capability in the first place.

Addressing these challenges was a central theme of the 2026 NEMO User Meeting, hosted by MIT.nano Oct. 5–6. The meeting brought together 65 representatives from 25 laboratories and organizations, including facility directors, laboratory managers, technical staff, software developers, industry representatives, and government researchers. Sponsored by the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) hub, the meeting focused on sharing approaches to lab management and building connections among facilities.

At the center of the meeting was the NanoFab Equipment Management and Operations (NEMO) system, an open-source platform that provides tools for managing shared research facilities while allowing individual laboratories to adapt the system to their own needs. The meeting highlighted an important characteristic of the NEMO community: The same platform can serve a very diverse set of facilities, and while the scale or the scientific missions of the facilities may differ, their core operational challenges are often remarkably similar. 

For Anna Osherov, associate director of Characterization.nano and organizer of the meeting, the collaborative model is one of the most compelling aspects of NEMO.

“Open source changes the way we think about technology development,” she says.

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