March 30, 2025
From 24-28th of March, the annual All-Hands Node meeting of Euro-BioImaging took place in the picturesque city of Heidelberg. In between the hills and the forest, houses the EMBL: the hosting location of the meeting.
It was a very fruitful meeting with exchange of opportunities, ideas, an challenges but above all the feeling of a very open and welcoming community.
As Population Imaging Flagship node Rotterdam, the Erasmus MC Imaging Office was actively involved in the meeting. Despite the medical (as opposed to biological) topics still being a bit underrepresented, there are still some highlights worth mentioning:
Ilva van Houwelingen, process coordinator of the Imaging Office, elected as vice-chair of the Panel of Nodes
Euro-BioImaging offers open access to biological and biomedical imaging technologies, training and data services across 41 nodes, comprised of 237 facilities, in 18 countries and the EMBL. One of these nodes is also embedded in our department: the Population Imaging Flagship Node Rotterdam. This strengthens the research (infrastructure) and user network for BIGR and the Imaging Office.
Within Euro-BioImaging, the nodes have a central position. The Panel of Nodes acts as the advisory body for the directorate of Euro-BioImaging representing both the needs of the nodes, and also updating the nodes about all opportunities.
In the next two years, the new chair and vice-chair of the Panel of Nodes aim to facilitate easy, low-key node-to-node interactions and improve representation of the medical nodes (as opposed to the bio nodes).
Ilva is really excited to start this adventure and strengthen our position in the Euro-BioImaging community!
More on medical node involvement
Global BioImaging has a working group specific for Biomedical Imaging: The Biomedical Imaging Community. They also organize a workshop on Biomedical Image data on the 23rd of april from 9 to 10:30. You can register here.
An initiative was started to have the medical nodes connect and exchange more often.
Ilva van Houwelingen, process coordinator of the Imaging Office, gave a presentation on ‘2024 at the Erasmus MC Imaging Office’. Highlighting achievements, but also challenges starting up a service oriented office in the medical imaging world.
Imaging4All call
Global BioImaging organizes an open call called Imaging4All to fund Low/Middle-Income Country researches to access imaging infrastructures and training opportunities. Find more information on the call here.
Industry
There has been a lot of exchange on (funding) opportunities and best practices in working with industry.
European Grants
Euro-BioImaging and its nodes are actively participating in European Grants. These vary from grants that allow for user access to large Horizon Europe grants. Please let the Imaging Office or Euro-BioImaging directly know if you are interested in partnering up.
Imaging Data Community Days
Next week (7-11th of April), the Imaging Data Community Days will take place. A week full of online sessions for anyone interested in biological or biomedical image data. Of specific interest for the Erasmus MC Imaging Office are the sessions of Thursday from 13:00 to 16:00 on Medical Image Data and Friday from 14:00 to 15:00 on Tools Exchange. Besides the Imaging Office also giving some presentations during these sessions, we are also very curious to hear about the work from other groups! More information can be found here.
