F-BIAS: Towards a distributed national core facility for Bioimage Analysis

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of a distributed national bioimage analysis core facility in France, emphasizing community building, skill development, and remote service delivery to enhance bioimage analysis support for researchers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel distributed model for a national bioimage analysis core facility that fosters collaboration, skill growth, and remote service provision across France.

Findings

Created a federated network of bioimage analysts in France.

Established a virtual core facility offering remote consultations.

Facilitated skill development and collaboration among analysts.

Abstract

We discuss in this article the creation and organization of a national core facility for bioimage analysis, based on a distributed team. F-BIAS federates bioimage analysts across France and relies on them to deliver services to the researchers of this territory. The main challenge in implementing this structure is to provide significant scientific value to its members, thereby encouraging their active participation and persuading their respective host teams to support their involvement. F-BIAS accomplished this by creating a professional network that mitigates the negative effects of isolation experienced by its members, who are often the sole bioimage analyst within their local teams, and fosters the development of their technical skills. In a second phase we capitalized on F-BIAS to create a virtual, remotely-operating core facility for bioimage analysis, offering consultations and collaborative project services to the scientific community of France. The services are organized so that they also contribute to the technical proficiency of the analysts. To promote the creation of similar structures, we present and discuss here the organization of this nationally distributed bioimage analysis service core, highlighting successes and challenges.