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## Introduction

SciLifeLab Serve works with the concept of *Projects* as the central unit to organize relationships between apps, models, and file storage as well as with other users on the platform (collaborators). Every app, model, notebook, or file has to be located within a project. Only items that are located within the same project can connect to each other. For example, if you upload a file, only an application added within the same project where you added a file can access that file.

Projects that you have created/been granted access to can be found under the *My Projects* menu.

## Creating a project

You need to be logged in to create a project. To create a project, click on the corresponding button on the *My Projects* page. Choose *Default* project template unless you see other options and know that you need to choose another option. The name and description of the project are visible only to you and those who you grant access to the project. Once the project is created, you will be taken to the project dashboard where you can create different types of apps.

## Providing access to collaborators

You can provide access to your project to one or more collaborators to access the same apps, models, notebooks, files etc.

When you create a project, you become the project owner. As the project owner, you can invite collaborators to this project through the *Settings* -> *Access* menu. Here, you will need to provide an email of the person you wish to add to the project. Note that this email should already be a registered email on SciLifeLab Serve.

When you create an app with the Visibility level *Project*, those collaborators will be able to see and edit the app.

## Working with apps, models, notebooks

The apps, models, and notebooks within the same project can communicate with each other (but never outside of the project). This means that you can, for example, create one application that will be responsible for running calculations and another application that will communicate with the first one and display the results.

## Working with files

Each project has a default storage assigned to it. All apps, models, and notebooks within the same project (but never outside of the project) will be able to read or write to this same file storage. This means that if one app saves files into this storage, another app will be able to use the saved files. See the page on [File management](https://serve.scilifelab.se/docs/files/) for more on this.