IVI labs will be equipped with virtual tools for collaboration, experimentation and analysis. The Shared Lab Notebooks support long-distance facilities sharing, with virtual pages to record and exchange research ideas and progress. The Laboratories are a personal digital storage space for experimental researchers. The system will leverage existing techniques by scanning the paper-and-pencil data entry on notebooks and entering the resulting images.

In the future, IVI labs will also provide remote control instruments, accessible from different parts of the world via a service platform. Access of remote instruments such as advanced optical microscopes, TEM, SEM, and synchrotron instruments will be developed in collaboration with ANL and ORNL.