Manage your Benchling account for Academics

In an academic account, there are several things that you can do with your individual account, and to facilitate collaboration with other users through organizations. This article will walk you through what you need to get started creating your account, creating an organization, and what actions you need to take should you ever need to close an account. 

Create and verify your account

Once you create an account, we require that you verify your email after creating an account.

We’ll send you a welcome email after you sign up - it’s as simple as clicking the “verify your email” link. If you don’t see the email, be sure to check your Spam folder - look for an email from support@benchling.com.

Otherwise, try resending the verification email by visiting your account settings. If you encounter any issues, don’t hesitate to email support@benchling.com. 

Set a recovery email

1. Go to Settings.
2. Under Profile Information select Set Recovery Email.
3. Enter your recovery email and click Update Recovery Email.

Change your email

1. Go to Settings
2. Under Profile Information select Change Email
3. Enter a new email and click Update Email

Once you have access to your account, you can start managing your experiments with Notebook and creating and viewing sequences. 

Share data with lab members and collaborators using Organizations

Creating an organization in Benchling allows you to create a group of users to facilitate the sharing of data. If your team is already on Benchling, you can request to join an existing organization, or if your team is just getting started on Benchling, you can create your own. 

To get to the organization menu: 

1. Click on your avatar at the bottom of the navigation side bar
2. Click on the Create or join an organization option in the menu

To join an existing organization: 

1. Use the search bar to search for an existing organization, if the organization pops up click Request to join
   • Alternatively, click the Institution dropdown to search for organizations that exist within your institution 

To create a new organization 

1. If the organization you are looking for doesn’t exist, click Create an organization
2. You will be brought to a screen that asks you to establish information about your organization
   • Give your organization a name, handle and optionally associate it with an institution and upload an image as your avatar
   • Use the search bar to the right to search for members and invite them to the organization
3. Once you’ve invited all the members to your organization, click Next: share projects
4. Use the checkboxes to select which project(s) you’d like to share, and what permission you’d like to give collaborators then click Share and complete setup 

Add and remove members of your organization

Once you’ve created or joined an organization, it will show up in the menu when you click your avatar. 

If you are an organization admin, clicking into the org will bring you to a dashboard that will allow you to create new projects, add or remove members and adjust other settings of the organization. 

To add or remove members: 

1. Navigate to your organization’s Members tab
2. To add members
   • Use the Invite search bar to search for users you wish to invite to your organization. You can either use their Benchling username or their email address to search
3. To remove members
   • Click on the trash can icon next to a members name that appears when you place your cursor over their name 

On your organization’s Members tab, you can also choose new roles for members of your organization. For example, you can designate other admins using the role dropdown next to their name. 

Manage organization settings

On your organization’s Settings tab, you can edit your organization’s information, including its name, export the organization’s data, or delete the organization. Make sure that you click Save changes before you leave this screen so that any changes you make are applied to the organization. 

To change the organization handle, please contact Benchling directly.

Close your account

If you want to close your Academic Benchling account, follow these steps:

1. If you own any shared projects, transfer ownership to someone else or unshare the applicable project(s)
   • To transfer ownership of the project, navigate to the project and click on the gear icon
   • Use the owner dropdown to transfer ownership to the relevant party
   • Click Save to save changes to the project itself
2. Once you’ve completed step 1, email support@benchling.com to request account deletion and confirm that you have transferred ownership for the applicable projects  

Closing your account vs a DSR Request

An account closure is typically requested when a user no longer needs the account, for reasons like graduating or merging duplicate accounts. 

A Data Subject Access Request (DSR) is a formal privacy request to permanently erase data in compliance with laws like GDPR or CCPA. To submit a formal DSR request, please click here.