Developed by Philippe BUN, research engineer at the NEURIMAG imaging facility, part of the France-BioImaging Paris-Centre Node, Fa•Da•Scope is a new software suite designed to support the monitoring and traceability of microscopy set-ups. Initially deployed at NEURIMAG, the tool is now drawing interest from other imaging facilities, including Cyceron in Caen and PRIMACEN in Rouen, both part of the France-BioImaging infrastructure. Discover how Fa•Da•Scope helps bridge the gap between instrument booking and real workstation use.

Shared research facilities often face the same operational gap: a booking tells the facility engineers who was expected to use an instrument, but it rarely documents what happened once the user sat at the workstation. This “last-mile” gap between the calendar and the instrument can create blind spots in traceability, handover and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) compliance. To address this challenge, Philippe BUN has developed the Facility Data Scope (in short Fa•Da•Scope ••).

Fa•Da•Scope•• is a lightweight software suite designed for shared-instrument environments. For nearly a year, it has been deployed as a software gatekeeper on high-end confocal and widefield systems at the NeurImag imaging facility (IPNP, Inserm, Université Paris Cité). It sits at the workstation between the user and the instrument control software. Before acquisition begins, users interact with a brief, facility-defined interface to manage:

• identification and group/project information;
• tool and accessory selection;
• SOP acknowledgement;
• workstation checks and handover comments.

Fa•Da•Scope is not a booking system. It does not replace established platforms or local reservation tools. Instead, it complements them by documenting the exact point of contact where the user, the instrument software, the workstation and the facility rules meet. Fa•Da•Scope is built around three core pillars:

• Staff-driven design – Editor module
  • Facility staff remain in control by configuring system-related questions, tool lists, warnings and mandatory checks through a zero-code interface.
• Operational analytics – Insights module with pseudonymizer and spotlight utilities
  • Dedicated staff toolbox to clean, review and summarize session logs into facility-level indicators. When outputs need to be shared beyond the local staff team, identifiers can be pseudonymized and the resulting metrics transformed into presentation-ready figures.
• Privacy-first and lightweight deployment
  • Fa•Da•Scope is strictly data-blind: it never inspects images, acquisition files or experimental content. Its architecture is designed to remain non-intrusive on high-performance acquisition workstations.

Following routine use at the NeurImag imaging facility and successful testing in one additional shared-facility environment, Fa•Da•Scope is now ready for broader deployment across the research community.

The team is looking to engage with facilities interested in standardizing their workstation metadata, improving instrument stewardship and contributing feedback from different instrument and facility contexts. Demonstrations, installation guidance and support for the initial configuration are provided.

Facilities interested in participating in this broader deployment phase are welcome to contact Philippe BUN at: philippe.bun@inserm.fr