A BioImagingUK Network: A Scientific Community Defining Strategic Initiatives for UK BioImaging.

就其本质而言，尖端成像取决于先进的硬件和专业人员。在大多数情况下，英国生命科学家和医学研究人员可以使用必要的成像基础设施来支持他们的直接工作，英国研究理事会和慈善机构的重大投资已经在英国的学术部门和研究所建立了许多世界一流的成像设施。然而，任何一个机构的成像设施通常都是由当地的研究重点所驱动的，并非任何一个机构的所有成像模式都是最先进的，而且，在过去十年中，成像技术取得了巨大的飞跃，在分辨率、速度、灵敏度、信号处理、功能读出和生物物理建模方面取得了进步，现在达到了以前无法想象的能力。然而，这种新技术的日益复杂和随之而来的费用和复杂性使得在英国的每个站点建立和运行尖端成像技术变得不切实际。虽然有几个独立的网站已经建立了一个或多个这些新兴的成像技术的专门知识，没有一个机构可以提供所有的成像能力，现在可以应用于生物问题，这将成为现代生物科学越来越必要。尽管如此，如果英国生命科学家和医学研究人员要保持在各自领域的国际前沿，他们需要获得所有这些技术。因此，迫切需要确定成像仪器和人员基础设施，访问政策和可持续的支持机制，必须支持英国科学向前发展。我们已经建立了BioImagingUK（bioimaginguk.org），这是一个基层倡议，旨在为英国成像科学定义战略优先事项，访问政策和可持续实践。这一努力建立了一个由成像科学家和技术专家组成的联盟，他们为英国生物成像的战略和政策做出了明确的公开声明。迄今为止，BioImagingUK的活动包括一系列社群活动，这些活动集中在组织我们的优先事项，制定战略声明，代表英国生物成像科学家的利益，并协调英国对欧洲生物成像不断发展的活动和建议呼吁的反应。该提案寻求为BioImagingUK提供第一笔正式资金，以组建一个英国网络，该网络将用于继续和扩大BioImagingUK的活动。

By its very nature, cutting edge imaging depends on advanced hardware and expert personnel. In most cases, UK life scientists and medical researchers have access to the imaging infrastructures necessary to support their immediate work and significant investments by UK Research Councils and charities have built a number of world-class imaging facilities in academic departments and institutes across the UK. The imaging facilities at any individual institution, however, are usually driven by the local research priorities and not all imaging modalities at any single institution are at the state of the art. Furthermore, over the last decade enormous leaps have been made in imaging technology with advances in resolution, speed, sensitivity, signal processing, functional readouts and biophysical modelling - now reaching previously unimagined capabilities. The increasing sophistication and concomitant expense and complexity of this new technology, however, make it impractical to build and run cutting edge imaging technology at every site in the UK. While several individual sites have established specific expertise in one or more of these emerging imaging technologies, no single institution can provide all the imaging capabilities that can now be applied to biological questions and which will become increasingly necessary in modern bioscience. Nonetheless, if UK life scientists and medical researchers are going to stay at the international forefront of their fields, they need access to all of these technologies. Thus there is a critical need to define the imaging instrumentation and personnel infrastructure, access policies, and sustainable support mechanisms that must underpin UK science going forward. We have built BioImagingUK (http://bioimaginguk.org), a grassroots initiative to define strategic priorities, access policies, and sustainable practices for UK imaging science. That effort has built an aligned, committed consortium of imaging scientists and technologists who have contributed to a clear, public statement of strategy and policy for UK bioimaging.To date, BioImagingUK's activities include a series of community activities centred on organising our priorities, developing strategic statements, representing the interests of the UK bioimaging scientists, and coordinating UK's response to Euro-BioImaging's evolving activities and calls for proposals. This proposal seeks the first formal funding for BioImagingUK, to form a UK Network, that will be used to continue and expand BioImagingUK's activities.