Wonderful All Hands Nodes Meeting at EMBL Heidelberg
April 9, 2025
Events
Nodes
Panel of Nodes
From March 25-28, Euro-BioImaging Hub team was delighted to host our Node community & industry partners. The Euro-BioImaging All Hands Meeting is the occasion to connect with colleagues from around Europe and exchange on topics ranging from imaging technology innovation, data, training & international collaboration. We exchanged experiences on user access, training course management, outreach activities and more, heard from our Global BioImaging partner Microscopy Australia and had inspiring discussions around data standards, future training programs, and impact assessment.
We started with the Panel of Nodes meeting, bringing together coordinators from our 41 Nodes for important updates. This group is an important Advisory body within the Euro-BioImaging Governance, and meets regularly to advise to the Directorate concerning Euro-BioImaging ERIC activities related to the Nodes. This meeting was the final meeting chaired by Panel of Node Chair Marc van Zandvoort and Vice-Chair Julia Fernandez-Rodriguez, to whom we are very grateful for their excellent services over the past four years.
New Panel of Nodes Chairs
We are delighted to announce that Sebastian Munck of Flanders BioImaging and Ilva van Houwelingen of the Population Imaging Node Rotterdam were elected by their peers as the new Panel of Nodes Chair and Vice-Chair respectively. We look forward to working with them to continue to steer Euro-BioImaging ERIC in the right direction. Congratulations to both!
In the first afternoon of the All Hands meeting, a number of parallel sessions were on offer for participants, including a hands on FLIM Workshop organised by Euro-BioImaging Industry Board member Picoquant, an AI4Life Workshop, exploring synergies between the AI4Life and the Euro-BioImaging Nodes Communities, a Networking meeting for staff from preclinical and medical imaging facilities, a workshop on hyperspectral image data formats, as well as a poster session preview and other networking activities.
A day dedicated to innovation
On Wednesday, March 26, we had the pleasure of hearing from the Euro-BioImaging Industry Board representatives, Chair Herbert Schaden, Zeiss, and new Vice-Chair Frederik Siegmann, Picoquant, who opened the day with inspiring welcoming talks highlighting the common goal of excellent science that is shared between industry and academia. The strong motivation to foster exchange between Nodes and Industry has fuelled the collaboration with the Euro-BioImaging Industry Board for the past 10 years and will drive us into the future. The Industry Board welcome was followed by Euro-BioImaging updates from the Euro-BioImaging Directorate.
"It was amazing to attend the All-hands-Nodes Meeting 2025 at EMBL-Heidelberg (March 25–28), where researchers, imaging facility staff, and Node representatives of Euro-BioImaging came together to strengthen our European Network and also explore global opportunities with Global BioImaging."
-- Baubak Bajoghli, Managing Director, Austrian BioImaging/CMI (on LinkedIn)
We also heard a range of presentations from our Nodes and Euro-BioImaging Industry Board members focusing on imaging technologies. From super resolution to cryo-EM to photo acoustic imaging to state-of-the-art Lightfield 4D imaging, we were exposed to mind-blowing images and gained a lot of insight into different workflows. We also learned how to get the best results out of the most basic microscopes and explored why innovation is crucial at core facilities.
The day wrapped up with a dynamic poster session, the perfect opportunity to exchange with colleagues and learn more about the diverse specialities and expertise of Euro-BioImaging Nodes.
Photos from the All Hands Nodes meeting
Photo legends can be found at the bottom of the page.
Sessions on International Collaboration & Meet the Nodes
On Thursday, March 27, we started the day with a session on International collaboration, featuring a keynote presentation from Lisa Yen, Director of Microscopy Australia, Euro-BioImaging’s long-standing partner infrastructure in Australia. We also heard updates and opportunities from Global BioImaging, highlighting the amazing training programme they run for core facility staff as well as other initiatives they are involved in, such as the Imaging4all funding for imaging projects, training and job shadowing for researchers and imaging core facility staff working in low and middle income countries.
"It was a pleasure to gather with our colleagues from the Euro-BioImaging Nodes and discuss imaging technology innovation, data, access, training & international collaboration."
- Caroline Thiriet, External Affairs Manager, France-BioImagingRead the full article about the event on France-BioImaging's website here.
Presentations from Nodes
We also enjoyed presentations from Euro-BioImaging Node staff, to get to know initiatives they are driving locally. This included two exciting national funding programmes to support user access at Czech Nodes and Italian Nodes (learn more about Czech-BioImaging User Access funding and SEE-Life User Access funding for Italian Nodes) and a number of service and methodology updates. We also had a highly interactive session about the Euro-BioImaging user experience, which was featured on the France-BioImaging website here.
Exploring data initiatives
In the afternoon, we focused on Image data initiatives, with a variety of presentations from our Nodes. These presentations focused on image data analysis expertise, AI for medical imaging analysis, but also highlighted some best practices for running image data analysis-focused training courses. We also learned about the BAND remote desktop service available via Euro-BioImaging to support distributed remote training courses. Then we heard about the foundingGIDE project and ended the day with a lively panel discussion about “What do the Nodes need to improve their data management practices?”.
"What an incredible experience attending the Euro-BioImaging All Hands Meeting for the first time! It was truly inspiring to connect with the amazing Euro-BioImaging community, meet new colleagues, and explore the many opportunities this network offers."
- Irit Shoval, Head of Light Microscopy Unit, Israel BioImaging (on LinkedIn)
EVOLVE opportunities
On Friday, March 28, we heard about opportunities from the EVOLVE project for Euro-BioImaging Node staff, namely training, job shadowing and mentorship. We also heard from participants in the first EVOLVE job shadowing cohort about their experience, before going into breakout sessions on topics like training, outreach & communications, data, and core facility performance evaluation. We wrapped up the event with a nice video highlighting impressions of the week from our Nodes.
See you next year in Finland!
We were so glad to have the opportunity to exchange with members of our Node community this week! Thanks to everyone who participated both in person and online, and we look forward to seeing you next year in Turku, Finland!
Photo captions
FROM TOP LEFT to BOTTOM RIGHT:
Row 1: Luisa Cortes shares information about the PPBI Node at the poster session. Photo borrowed from PPBI LinkedIn.//Aleš Benda shared a range of new developments at the Prague Node, including a highlight on the Czech-BioImaging 10th Anniversary celebration which took place in Prague in March 2025. //Ilva van Houwelingen presents the range of image data analysis and management services available at the Population Imaging Rotterdam Node. // Thomas Braunstein shares information about the Danish BioImaging Node at the poster session.
Row 2: Johanna Bischof introduces Lisa Yen, Director of Microscopy Australia, who attended the meeting remotely and presented an overview of activities at the Microscopy Australia infrastructure.// Irit Shoval presented exciting application developments at the Scientific Equipment Unit she works for, part of Israel BioImaging Node.//Tricia Loo, Danish BioImaging Node, talks about how the image analysts work together to raise awareness of image analysis services at the DBI node. //Tod Fallesen and Stefania Marcotti, UK Node, shared their experiences organising image data analysis related training courses - providing food for thought as well as essential resources for those interested in organising their own courses.
Row 3: The panel discussion during the foundingGIDE session on “What do the Nodes need to improve their data management practices?”//Daniela Aviles Huerta kicks off the EVOLVE opportunities session with Dale Lawson.//Antje Keppler thanks Johanna Bischof and the team for the fantastic organisation of the All Hands Nodes meeting.//Sebastian Munck of Flanders BioImaging Node shares his experience with the job shadowing programme, which allowed him to work with Julien Colombelli at the Barcelona Node. Read full story
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