CareerPath for Imaging Scientists

My team and I have invested significant time solidifying the National Center for Structural Biology and Bioimaging at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (CENABIO/UFRJ). Our centre, an open Research Infrastructure (RI), offers a range of facilities covering scales from atoms to small animals, including NMRs, AEMs, CryoEMs, Confocal/Super Resolution, AFM, MRI, PET-SPECT, and US-ECO.

Our focus on training in advanced light and electron microscopy techniques and facilitating access for groups in Brazil and beyond has yielded positive results. Collaborations with other centres in Brazil, contributing to technique consolidation, new microscopy centre installations, and modernization efforts, have been particularly enlightening. An exemplar is CMABIO/UEA, a new microscopy centre in the Amazon region, where unique specimens from rainforest biomes are scrutinised, shedding light on infection mechanisms and the impact of climate change.

These initiatives extend beyond scientific advancements, contributing to the promotion of imaging careers in remote regions. Collaborations with organizations like the Brazilian Society for Microscopy and Microanalysis, Latin America Bioimaging Network (LABI), GBI, and CIASEM have provided valuable opportunities. However, challenges persist, especially in the Brazilian University system, where the dedication of facility directors, managers, and technicians often goes unrecognized and unrewarded. Addressing issues of low recognition, underpayment, and a lack of career progression is crucial. Additionally, the perpetual challenge of sustainability, tied to funding success, necessitates advocacy with policymakers, funding agencies, and the government. Despite these challenges, successes in hiring specialized personnel and building awareness of imaging facilities' unique issues have been achieved.

The Africa Microscopy Initiative (AMI) is a multi-pronged, continent wide undertaking aimed at addressing the inequitable access to advanced microscopy in Africa. It combines an all-expense-covered open-access microscopy center, with multifaceted educational opportunities, and an instrument distribution program. Its vision is propelled by the recognition that effective capacity-strengthening for microscopy in Africa hinges on the confluence of technology access, dissemination, and education. This program provides an unbroken flow of technology and expertise that will elevate life scientists in Africa working on critical research areas. A multi-tiered approach to education and instrument dissemination is strategically designed to create a deployable, critical mass of microscopy instruments and trainers who will empower African scientists. Fully funded by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and the Gates Foundation, AMI also provides a platform through which modern, operational but pre-owned microscopes can be efficiently transferred to African institution with justifiable needs. In addition, AMI offers international fellowship to pair African microscopists with their international counterpart and the opportunity to be mentored by highly experienced imaging scientist to run microscopy workshops in Africa, thus greatly expanding the number of trained personnel who will engaged in microscopy teaching in Africa.

The first call-for-proposal for the AMI Imaging Centre has attracted 63 proposals from 18 different countries. Furthermore, AMI has also benefitted other global access programs such as the Advanced Imaging Center (AIC) at HHMI Janelia Research Campus, which has seen an exponential increase in its proposal submission from Africa following AMI launch.

The long term sustainability of AMI is the responsibility of Africa, and the challenge is to convey this message to the African (especially South African) funding agencies. Likewise, AMI success hinges on the general awareness of the initiative within the African scientific community, and it will remain a challenge to raise such a continental level of awareness about an initiative whose very modus operandi – open-access research resource and training-the-trainers – is a concept very foreign to the continent.

Numerous training courses already exist in the field of bioimaging in France, responding to local/regional needs. However, they are scattered, not integrated in a progressive training scheme, and their long term benefit is not evaluated and lacks recognition. Consequently, their effect on the career of core facility scientists does not have a clear impact on their professional status. How to structure this training offer at the scale of an off-site national infrastructure? How to ensure knowledge transfer to have sustainable technology innovation in bioimaging? How can we ensure that core facility scientists acquire throughout their career the required skills to accompany users on the infrastructure's equipment?

Since 2019, France-BioImaging members and partners are developing an open training tool, aiming to provide a real "training passport" for biological imaging. It is based on an extensive inventory of transferable knowledge, from which we will derive several forms of content, according to three training modalities: face-to-face, synchronous and asynchronous distance learning.

The « training passport » will offer a streamlined, integrated and progressive training portfolio, with theoretical and practical modules, leading to the recognition, validation and accreditation of prior learning and skills, taking advantage of what is already accessible within France-BioImaging.

During the past year, the methodological framework for the implementation of the FBI Training Passport has been developed. The transferable knowledge was listed and prioritized in the form of a 3-level mind map: field, topic and sequences. A book of knowledge was thus constituted for each of the 3 fields of activity of the infrastructure: electron microscopy, photonic microscopy and data processing/analysis. The training content developed through these books of knowledge will be hosted on a searchable and curated data base on France-BioImaging website and used to implement a pilot training program through online modalities with the preparation of MOOCs in 2022/2023.

This database will also provide the necessary content to allow us to design specific training programs according to the audience's needs, or offer specific content to be added to already existing educational programs delivered by Universities in order to boost young scientists' interest for bioimaging, but also better prepare the next generation of core facility scientists.