Beiwe Service Center (BSC) studies are run on the Onnela Lab production instance of Beiwe. This includes the latest version of the software and the Onnela Lab Amazon Web Services (AWS) server.
To start a BSC study, the first step is getting your cost estimate. BSC pricing is based on three variables:
- How many study participants you plan to enroll (N)
- How long you collect data for each study participant (t in months)
- How long you expect this research to last (T in months) I.E. The time from the enrollment of the first participant to finish of data collection on the last enrolled study participant, this includes any additional time needed for study admin and data download.
The BSC arrangement requires you to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which provides the software “as is” and asks for your IRB protocol and approval. Many people ask if a DUA is needed, and the Harvard policy is that we only need to have an MOU based on the services we provide. However, each institution needs to decide what is appropriate for them.
The Onnela Lab will set up a study for you once the cost has been agreed upon and your MOU has been signed. The study will include the passive data settings that make sense for your study and give you a login to your study on the Beiwe backend. BSC users can request Beiwe access for up to five users that are on your IRB. Anyone with access to the system can enter survey questions and schedule them for release. The backend is also where you’ll generate user IDs and passwords for your study participants. The Beiwe app is available on the App Store for Apple users and can be downloaded from the web and Google Play Store for Android users. To see what passive data parameters can be collected, view the Beiwe wiki.