BioImagingUK Community Network

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Since it's first use nearly 400 years ago, microscopy has grown to be one of the most powerful and commonly used research tools by life scientists across the world. Using microscopes to image biological samples can provide a wealth of information ranging from understanding how tissues are organised during development and how this changes in diseases, to studying single proteins or DNA behave inside living cells. The types of microscopes that researchers use in the lab are often very advanced and complex in nature, and can require teams of experts to build and maintain them as well as to teach other scientists how to use them for their experiments. Moreover, analysing the data that research teams produce from these sorts of microscopes can be complicated. Nearly all Universities and research Institutes across the UK have microscopes in use within their research labs, but we currently lack good ways for these scientists from very different fields to share their imaging equipment, expertise and ideas. This sort of interaction is very important for knowledge exchange, training researchers and developing new ideas that will ultimately improve our research and mean the UK is at the forefront of this exciting technological area. The purpose of this proposal is to support up a UK-wide network called BioImagingUK, which will provide a way for imaging scientists to interact, discuss newly emerging ideas and decide on key priorities that we need to work on to improve the quality of our research. A big focus of BioImagingUK will also be in supporting the technical and more junior imaging scientists and put in place important measures to help their career development and visibility across the UK research community. This is not only important for their careers, but also really helps the UK to retain exceptional talent to ensure we remain at the forefront of this internationally competitive scientific area. BioImagingUK will also help academic researchers to interact more closely with teams from associated Industries (such as companies who manufacture microscopes) to help build better relationships between the two sectors and identify new ways to develop novel technology together. Finally, this community network will also provide an important platform for bio-imaging scientists from across the UK to communicate their research to the public.