FirstManchesterMtg Summary

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First, our thanks to Peter March and the University of Manchester for hosting and organizing the meeting, buying all the food and coffee, and working through all the details so that remote groups could participate. This effort is very much appreciated-- it's the behind-the-scenes stuff that helps make these meeting successful.

Representatives of many of the major research centres in the UK attended, either in the room or remotely. In addition, Becky Aarons from the Wellcome Trust joined us. Alf Game, from the BBSRC, was unable to attend, but indicated that he wanted to be involved in future activities.

We review the presentations from the first Euro-BioImaging meeting, held at end of June in Frankfurt. These presentations were mailed to the list previously. If anyone needs them again, let me know-- some of the comments below refer to points in these presentations. This will all get easier once we get a web site up.

We had a good discussion, that ranged across all the major issues we are grappling with-- the correct role for facilities in our scientific infrastructure, proper access to existing and developing technologies, proving grounds for new and emerging technologies, and career structures and opportunities for our staff and colleagues who provide critical services and/or drive developments that we are know are the foundation of our scientific discovery.


There are a few major actions coming out of the meeting:

  1. We noted that to date, our colleagues in the UK involved in biomedical imaging (CT, MRI, PET) are not, to our knowledge involved in Euro-BioImaging. Those of us with colleagues in this field should encourage them to contact Gabriel Krestin, who is Scientific Coordinator for biomedical imaging component of Euro-BioImaging.
  2. We also noted that there are still UK institutions that have not appeared at our meetings, or on the list. We agreed we would identify colleagues involved in imaging in our own or other institutions and get them registered on this email list and pointed towards our resources.
  3. We agreed that, while our current mode of operating has clearly produced a thriving scientific effort in the UK, there is much to be gained from forming a group or consortium that can coherently represent our views and needs to our community, our universities, and our funding bodies.
  4. We settled on a name-- BioImagingUK. The domains bioimaginguk.org, bioimaginguk.eu, ukbioimaging.org, ukbioimaging.eu have been registered. For the moment, I own them, we can work out those details later. We will initiate an effort to develop a simple, but visually powerful web site to announce the group. A short application for funding to get this site up will be submitted to the Wellcome Trust.
  5. We worked through a one page summary of what we want to achieve out of our current efforts directed towards responding to Euro-BioImaging. The major actions are the comprehensive declaration of the resources we have in place, what special expertise we have and can share, and, most importantly what we need in the future. I have a list of these for all participants, and will be writing the list for information from any other institutions. The collated lists of what we have, and what we need will be used to drive strategy statements and documents for Euro-BioImaging and also our UK funding bodies. Look for these to be sent out at the end of next week.
  6. Jo Marrison is developing a truly great resource [1]. This lists the existing light microscopy facilities in the UK, what resources are there, and where appropriate, what resources can be shared with external members of the community. Jo is continuing to develop this site, and is, as you have seen, is actively soliciting information from the imaging community. This will be THE LIST of resources we present to Euro-BioImaging are the statement of resources and access for the so-called "general nodes" (see the presentations sent out early for more info). Please do make sure your imaging facilities and resources are on this site.
  7. Rainer Pepperkok (EMBL) is in charge of the work packages focussed on specialised nodes-- where new technology is being built and developed. Those sites with this type of tech should contact Stefan directly to participate in his work packages. Note that Stefan Hell (MPI) was mistakenly reported to be taking on this task; apologies for the mistake.
  8. At least 8 of us are planning on attending the Euro-BioImaging Stakeholders meeting in Heidelberg. We will use the docs described above to present a unified message at the meeting. Besides presenting our existing facilities and commitment to shared access for advanced light microscopy, we want to request funds to enable this access-- personnel who can perform training, supervision, maintenance, etc. to ensure that facilities can effectively and usefully serve the greater community. We'll see if this will fly.
  9. After the September meeting, we will schedule another meeting of BioImagingUK, probably in October, to continue developing the group and establish our next actions.

That's my summary. Anyone at the meeting who wants to amend or add to these, please do so. I'll be preparing the various docs referred to above over the next two weeks. This will get close to the date for the Heidelberg meeting, but should be OK.

To repeat, we want BioImagingUK to represent our whole community. Please spread the word, get people to sign up for the mailing list, which will be the authoritative mode of communication, until we get a full web site up.

Thanks again to all those who came to the meeting. Look forward to talking again soon.

Jason 16:11, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

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