Two projects recently received funding from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), in which France-BioImaging members take part actively: COMULIS and NEUBIAS. Two community building activities breaking up frontiers to gather scientists around one goal: developing biological imaging.

COMULIS

COMULIS received a 2-year funding from CZI to expand their network both globally and sustainably. Being designed to harness the power of multimodal imaging (MMI) across scales, from basic to clinical diagnostics, this European initiative aims at facilitating access and training a new generation of scientists for whom multimodal imaging will be the new norm. Thanks to this grant, the project will be consolidated and it will help extend the collaborative and innovative network to establish a global multimodal imaging association (COMULISglobe) and ensure long term sustainability.

MMI integrates the best features of combined techniques and overcomes limitations faced when applying single modalities independently. MMI relies on the joint expertise from biologists, physicists, chemists, clinicians, and computer scientists, and depends on coordinated activities and knowledge transfer between technology developers and users. To achieve this inherently interdisciplinary goal, the ultimate goal is toestablish a network of scientists across continents and disciplines, from academia to industry, including transnational research facilities (e.g. synchrotrons, Euro-BioImaging ERIC), to foster and market MMI as a versatile tool in biomedical research and diagnostics.

COMULISglobe will help bridge the gap between biological and clinical imaging, identify, fund, and showcase novel multimodal pipelines, and develop, evaluate, and publish correlation software through dedicated networking activities, including conferences, training schools, open databases, and fellowships for lab exchanges, access to research infrastructures, and conference attendance. And, of course, all outputs of the project will be open access!

Please do not hesitate to join the community and help organize activities or publications – and please share the news, mobility and access grants available at: https://www.comulis.eu/comulisglobe-czi

Thanks to Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux, Bretagne-Loire node of France-BioImaging, for taking part of this amazing project!

NEUBIAS

The international Network of European BioImage Analysts (NEUBIAS), hosted by German BioImaging has also received a 2-year funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) as part of their Advancing Imaging through Collaborative Projects program. This grant will secure the sustainability of NEUBIAS, establish strong connections to similar initiatives, and share knowledge about state-of-the-art bioimage analysis tools and methods globally.

Spreading the profession of bioimage analysts and bioimage analysis knowledge internationally are the major aims of NEUBIAS. Modern life-sciences are unthinkable without advanced microscopy imaging techniques and quantitative bioimage analysis. This grant will help ensure novices and experts can access cutting edge techniques, reduce duplications of effort, and support everyone who is working to making new discoveries possible.

NEUBIAS had a tremendous impact on the community by training a powerful generation of bioimage analysts across Europe and beyond. The next step of this project will expand the network internationally and connect to related imaging and image analysis societies around the globe. With that in mind, the project includes travel grant opportunities for early-career bioimage analysts who seek to join NEUBIAS activities, explicitly including scientists outside central Europe. Besides, a dedicated team will work on collecting bioimage analysis teaching materials and make them accessible to the global imaging and life science community.

Great news for both projects that – we hope – will continue to write the great story of bioimaging!

Thanks to Florian Levet, Bordeaux node of France-BioImaging, for being a member of this fantastic project!

Euro-BioImaging first open call for user projects is open! If you have an idea for a biological or biomedical imaging project that you, your student or your close colleague could carry out in one of Euro-BioImaging Nodes, including France-BioImaging, now is the time to make this project come true with financial support from the Euro-BioImaging Access Fund.

How it works:

Submit your project proposal through the Euro-BioImaging web portal between October 20 and December 15, 2021, and indicate that you want to apply for the Euro-BioImaging Access Fund in order to be considered for a grant of up to 5.000 Euros to access the imaging services at a Euro-BioImaging Node. Projects will be evaluated by a committee of independent reviewers. Successful applicants will be notified by late January 2022 and successful projects should be started before July 2022.

What the funding covers:

The Euro-BioImaging Access Fund covers the user’s travel and accommodation costs as well as access and consumable costs at the imaging facilities that are part of Euro-BioImaging Nodes. For remote access projects shipment costs are also covered. Each successful applicant is eligible for up to 5.000 Euros of support.

Who is eligible:

All academic scientists, regardless of gender, nationality, home institution, career phase, or field of interest, are eligible to apply. We strongly encourage early career researchers to apply for this grant.

Projects should include transnational access to a Euro-BioImaging Node, i.e. the applicant’s home institution is in a different country than the Node where the project is to be performed. Due to the current sanitary situation, projects with non transnational access are elligible but transnational access will have priority.

All the external users/collaborators of France BioImaging facilities/labs are eligible:

  • any users from outside the institutional perimeter of France BioImaging nodes (i.e. from outside the following institutions: Aix-Marseille Université, Université de Montpellier, Université de Bordeaux, Université de Nantes, Université de Rennes 1, Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Paris, Université PSL -Paris Sciences & Lettres-, Généthon, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Pasteur) who would like to use imaging technologies in one of FBI nodes: Paris Centre, Paris Ile-de-France-Sud, Marseille, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Bretagne-Loire. They can be French or international users – EU and non-EU
  • or users from a France BioImaging regional Node who want to access an equipment available in another FBI regional node.

Evaluation:

All applications will be evaluated for scientific excellence by a committee of independent reviewers. Selected projects will be assessed for technical feasibility and if needed receive technical advice from the Node providing the service.

How to apply:

Applicants are invited to visit our website to discover the range of technologies provided by Euro-BioImaging Nodes. Applicants will then follow the user access process described here: https://www.eurobioimaging.eu/about-us/how-to-access and indicate that they wish to apply for the Euro-BioImaging Access Fund in the application form.

The detailed procedure to apply to access one of France BioImaging facilities is available here: https://france-bioimaging.org/access/

Full details: https://www.eurobioimaging.eu/about-us/funding-user-access