For professors & research groups

Lab management software for PIs and research groups

LetRelay gives a professor one list of who needs them this week. Students send a three-minute update on Friday, you get a digest on Monday with blockers first, and milestones, paper deadlines, equipment and recommendation letters remind the right person on their own. It runs in the browser, and a lab of up to 5 people uses it free.

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This week, Prof. Rao

Week of Sep 21 – 27

0/9

updates in

blocked

1:1s due

Needs you

Priya is blockedWaiting on GPU cluster access since Tuesday

Arjun has no update for last weekNudge sent Monday 08:00

Paper deadline: robust federated learningNeurIPS · in 4d 11h (AoE)

Mei: qualifying examDue in 12 days — plan signed off

1:1 with Tomás is dueLast one 19 days ago

letrelay.com

Research · People

Rao Lab · 9 people

PSPriya ShahPhD · Year 3 · robust federated learning

MessageCall nowBook 1:1Deadline

AMArjun MehtaMaster's · Year 1 · sensor fusion

MessageCall nowBook 1:1Deadline

MCMei ChenPhD · Year 1 · protein folding

MessageCall nowBook 1:1Deadline

Every student, one rowMessage, call, book a 1:1 or set a deadline without leaving the page.

What a research group runs on LetRelay

Know where every student stands without chasing anyone

Each student writes a three-minute update on Friday: what they did, what is next, what is blocking them, and what they are reading. A missing update gets a nudge on Monday, so you never have to send one. Supervisors get a Monday digest with blockers at the top, and an optional AI summary of the whole group that falls back to a plain list when the free AI allowance runs out. Students can add a 1 to 5 wellbeing score that only their supervisors see.

1:1s that remember what was said

Keep notes for every 1:1, and turn any line into a task with an owner and a due date. The student's history stays in one place, and a student who has not had a 1:1 in a while is flagged as overdue. From Research, then People, you can message a student, start a call, book a 1:1 at a time both calendars allow, or set them a deadline.

Deadlines nobody misses

Degree milestones (qualifying exam, proposal, annual review, thesis, defense) carry a due date, a supervisor sign-off and reminders 30, 7 and 1 days before, to the student and to you. Papers move through a pipeline from idea to camera-ready, with conference deadlines counted down in AoE (anywhere on Earth). Add a paper by DOI or arXiv id. Funding end dates and visa or permit expiry show up well before they bite.

Run the lab without being the bottleneck

Students book the microscope, GPU node or room themselves, within the limits you set per resource (hours per booking, hours per week). Training certificates carry expiry dates. Consumables have a low-stock level, and Reorder files a purchase request on the lab's request desk, routed like any other request. Onboarding and offboarding checklists, a duty roster, and a request desk for equipment repairs, purchases and travel reimbursements come with it.

Grants, letters and reports

Track each grant's budget lines, spend and burn rate, with a projection of when it runs out. Students request recommendation letters with the deadline and the materials attached, and you work them as a queue. At year end, each student's annual progress report is drafted from the record (milestones, papers, 1:1s, updates), ready to print for the department.

Private by design

Students see their own lab: lab-mates, their supervisors, staff and the PI. Peers never see each other's updates or 1:1 notes.
Wellbeing scores and evaluations are visible only to the student and their supervisors.
Grants stay with staff. Students get neither the tab nor the rows.
Research → Private is visible to its author alone: not other admins, not supervisors, not students.
All of it is enforced by row-level security in the database, not only hidden in the interface.

How it fits with the tools you already use

Instead of email, spreadsheets and memory

The weekly check-in, the deadline list and the "who needs me" list stop living in your inbox and your head. Nobody has to remember to ask.

Next to your lab notebook, not instead of it

An electronic lab notebook records experiments and data. LetRelay runs the people side: updates, supervision, deadlines and lab operations. Keep your notebook, Overleaf, Google Drive and GitHub, and link to them.

One workspace for the whole group

Tasks, rooms, messages, video meetings, a shared calendar and a knowledge base for SOPs are in the same place, so a lab doesn't stitch five tools together.

Pricing

Free for a lab of up to 5 people, no card needed. Pro is $20 a month for up to 15 people, then $2 a month for each extra person. Every research feature is on both plans.

Full pricing

Honest limits

One workspace per account today.
Drafts and data are links (Overleaf, Drive, GitHub), not uploaded files.
The free AI allowance is shared, so AI summaries fall back to a plain list when it runs out.
No university single sign-on (SAML) yet.

Questions professors ask

What is the best way to manage a research group?

Give the week a rhythm that runs itself: a short written update from every student on Friday, a digest for the supervisors on Monday with blockers first, 1:1s whose notes become tasks, and degree milestones that remind everyone ahead of time. The PI then works from one list of who needs them, instead of from memory and email. LetRelay is built around exactly that loop.

Is LetRelay an electronic lab notebook (ELN)?

No. An ELN records experiments and data. LetRelay manages the people and operations around the research: student updates, supervision, milestones, paper deadlines, equipment booking, inventory, grants and recommendation letters. Most labs keep their notebook and link to it.

How much does LetRelay cost for a lab?

A lab of up to 5 people uses it free, with no card needed. Pro is $20 a month for up to 15 people, then $2 a month for each extra person. Every research feature is on both plans; Pro lifts the shared monthly AI allowance.

Can students see each other's updates?

No. An update is read by its author, their supervisors and the PI. Wellbeing scores go only to the student's supervisors, and the database enforces this with row-level security.

How do students join?

Add them from Research → People with their level, dates and supervisor in one step. They get an account and their sign-in details by email.

What does AoE mean for a paper deadline?

Anywhere on Earth: the deadline holds until the day has ended everywhere, which is 12:00 UTC the next day. LetRelay counts conference deadlines down in AoE so nobody converts time zones by hand.

Can a company use LetRelay too?

Yes. LetRelay started as an internal request desk for teams. At sign-up you choose a company or a research group; a research group gets Research as its first tab, and any workspace can switch it on later in Settings → Modules.

Guides for PIs

Run your lab from one tab

Pick “Research group or lab” at sign-up and Research becomes your first tab.

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