The National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, a Community-wide Scientific Resource

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PROJECT SUMMARY AND ABSTRACT The National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at UC San Diego is a vital and unique NIGMS supported biomedical technology development research resource (BTRR). NCMIR is completing its 31st and final funded year of continuous operation and is thereby ineligible for renewal under new guidelines governing the P41 program. With this proposal, we request stabilizing support to help ease the transition of the Center to independent sustainability and to allow for the ordered completion of the resource's existing pool of supported biomedical research projects. NCMIR's mission is to advance the coordinated use of specialized molecular probes, novel specimen preparation methods, leading-edge microscopy and imaging technologies, and scalable computational tools to help investigators traverse difficult to navigate spatial and temporal scales, deliver new insight into multiscale structure/function relationships, and provide a fundamental understanding of the macromolecular mechanisms underlying many topics in health, disease, and aging. In transitioning the resource to a self-sustaining community-wide scientific resource, we provide details of our `Operation and Maintenance Plan' to govern how the resource supports ongoing research users, prepares developed technologies for broad dissemination, and modifies its approach to community engagement to communicate offered technologies, services, and resources. We further establish a `Transition Plan' to scale existing cost- recovery processes and put into place new mechanisms to stabilize support for the operation of the resource, buttressed by commitments from stakeholders within our home institution at the University of California, San Diego and the greater La Jolla mesa. Last, we establish an `Evaluation Plan' to quantify and assess resource performance and impact on the community, putting forth both Short-term Internal Metrics, to optimize resource utilization and make ongoing improvements, and Long-term Objective Metrics, to gauge overall impact on the scientific community.