That's not a bad idea at all! Software isn't what makes this work, necessarily. It's the networking and deep knowledge of the scientific process. My colleagues and I have the latter part already. These guys look like software/VC folk. I don't think they have that.

How much would your brother charge if we operated as a non-profit? Is it a hosted platform, or do we need to deploy ourselves?

Edit: I contacted the company via their form. Hopefully I can hear back from them.