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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EuBI PPII (Euro-BioImaging Preparatory Phase II - Project)

Teaser

Summary

Nowadays, the majority of research projects in the life sciences rely on imaging as a key enabling and discovery technology. However, many scientists are faced with the challenge that the state-of-the-art equipment, technical expertise or image data services required to perform their research is not available at their home institute or even in their home country. Overcoming this critical bottleneck for European research excellence is the mission of Euro-BioImaging. It does so by offering open access to these services to all researchers, regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity. In a nutshell, Euro-BioImaging (EuBI) is the pan-European research infrastructure that makes imaging technologies available to every life scientist.
Building EuBI started in 2008 with its inclusion in the ESFRI Roadmap. ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, allows Europeâ€™s countries to integrate the key capabilities that underpin their science. The inclusion of EuBI in its roadmap kicked-off the race to create a new European research infrastructure in imaging. From the beginning, EMBL, the European intergovernmental research organization for life science, coordinated the multinational partnership to turn the EuBI vision into a fully functional infrastructure. Thanks to these efforts, EuBI today is a recognized landmark on the ESFRI Roadmap and about to obtain its own legal personality (the ERIC - European Research Infrastructure Consortium). The 10-year planning and implementation period was supported by two EU Coordination and Support Actions awarded to EMBL, Preparatory Phase I and II. After the 1st phase had delivered the blueprint for the infrastructure, the current 2nd phase was the key to formalize the legal, financial, managerial and technical documents, as well as the tools and operational procedures to start operating the Euro-BioImaging ERIC.
EuBI provides essential technologies, training and data services to enable rapid progress and ensure world-leading excellence in life science across Europe. By allowing researchers to create new knowledge and better understand health and disease it will have a large impact on society. EuBI is built to accelerate the development and use of cutting-edge imaging technologies, allowing scientists easy access to the tools they need to push the boundaries of science at a pace that would otherwise be impossible. The resulting scientific discoveries, the opportunities for innovation and technology developments as well as the new multi-disciplinary and multinational partnerships will strengthen research across Europe. These improved research conditions for life scientists will increase European competitiveness, open new research fields, fundamentally advance the molecular understanding of health and disease and enable breakthrough research which is key for our society to address the Grand Challenges it faces today. The Euro-BioImaging ERIC will strengthen the technology development capacity, scientific performance, efficiency and attractiveness of the European Research Area.

Work performed

The EuBI PPII project fully achieved its goals, successfully concluding 10 years of EMBL-led preparation for the Euro-BioImaging ERIC launch. Thanks to these efforts, this infrastructure will have all the required legal, financial and technical documents as well as the operational procedures in place from its 1st day. It will also have built a solid user base and visibility amongst the wider community, having tested its services during an Interim Operation phase, which started in May 2016.
A major success of was the conclusion of the intergovernmental negotiations that took place to formulate the Euro-BioImaging ERIC statutes. This resulted in the submission of the ERIC application to the European Commission in March 2017. These extensive and consensus-oriented negotiations allowed EuBI to build very broad political support. As a result, from its outset, the Euro-BioImaging ERIC will enjoy the support of 13 founding members: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, EMBL, France, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Norway, Portugal, The Netherlands and Finland as the future Statutory Seat. This ensures that the budget for the first 5-years of operation of the Euro-BioImaging ERIC infrastructure is committed by its members.
At the operational level, other major successes include the running start of the multinational coordinating Hub (commonly hosted by Finland, Italy and EMBL) during Interim Operation as well as the identification of the 1st generation of EuBI Nodes, that provide physical user access. The developed template for Service Level Agreements will soon link each Node to the Hub legally, extending the distributed research infrastructure across Europe. In addition, the management structure of the Hub Office has been established, the EuBI Web Portal has been prepared for launch and all the working procedures to effectively run the ERIC services have been prepared and tested during almost 3 years of EuBI Interim Operation. At the technical and scientific level, the EuBI Image Data services have been prepared and tested in the pilot Image Data Resource (IDR) and Image Resource Portal (IRP). Procedures and tools to coordinate the training of EuBI users and Core Facility Staff as well as maintaining EuBIâ€™s technology portfolio up-to-date have been identified. Finally, a strong EuBI network across diverse stakeholder groups has been woven through outreach activities and the ERICâ€™s communication strategy has been developed. Altogether, these tools and operational procedures will ensure that Euro-BioImaging ERIC operation will hit the ground running.

Final results

The Euro-BioImaging ERIC is expected to have a significant impact on the European Research Area as a whole. By harmonizing existing and future imaging infrastructures across different Member States, the ERIC will make sure no country falls behind in the rapid development of imaging technologies and their application in the life sciences. EuBI is expected to foster commitment across Europe at the Member State level to ensure long-term engagement and financial support to national imaging infrastructures. In fact, national support has grown continuously since 2008, with currently 26 national imaging communities forming national networks and mobilizing investments.
It is also foreseen that the technology development activities and scientific collaborations that will take place at the EuBI Nodes will create a highly innovative environment, allowing new products, instrumentation and start-up companies to be created. In this regard, EuBI has already leveraged on the existence of an Industry Board, that brings together 12 imaging companies (Leica, Nikon, Olympus, Hamamatsu, Zeiss, LIS, PCO, Thermo-Fisher, Fujifilm, Fluidigm, Greiner Bio-One, Acquifer) to function as a collaboration platform between the imaging industry and the wider EuBI community.
Finally, at the international level, EuBI is a partner in the EMBL-coordinated Global BioImaging network, which allows close collaboration with international imaging infrastructure partners to build common services, especially in image data and training. This network will allow the future ERIC to collaborate with imaging communities in Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and the USA, exchanging experiences and best practice on all topics related to imaging infrastructure operation.