£1.8 million investment in bioimaging technologies
15 July 2025
Access to bioimaging technologies for UK researchers has received an £1.8 million investment, revolutionising how UK life scientists access advanced biological and biomedical imaging facilities.
The UKRI-BBSRC and UKRI-MRC have awarded the UK Euro-BioImaging Node a five-year strategic fund to help democratize bioimaging technology for UK researchers. Through this new funding, researchers will be able to access state-of-the-art bioimaging technologies, allocating up to £800,000 for user access funds, enabling UK researchers to apply to use both UK-based bioimaging facilities and the additional facilities across Europe.
The £1.8 million investment will allow expansion of the UK Euro-BioImaging Node. Currently, the UK Node offers open access to a wide range of advanced biological imaging techniques, providing multi-sited national infrastructure for bioimaging in the UK – with 14 facilities spread across 7 UK sites. The new funding will enable significant expansion in biological imaging technologies to increase the number of biological imaging sites and technologies available. As well as including, for the first time, access to pre-clinical and clinical imaging technologies such as MRI, PET/CT, and other medical imaging techniques.
The incorporation of biomedical imaging represents a major step forward. The UK is world-leading in several biomedical imaging domains, but access has been limited by both funding constraints and logistical challenges. This award allows the community to tackle these with strong support from the Euro-BioImaging Med-Hub team.
Professor Maddy Parsons, King’s College London and UK Node Lead Investigator and Director of BioImagingUK, said: "This strategic award represents a significant landmark for the UK bioimaging community. The expansion of the UK Node and ringfenced funds for access will open new doors for many researchers, accelerating impactful discoveries across life science domains and strengthening the UK's position as a global leader in bioimaging research.”
The programme will also fund training, job shadowing, and networking for UK Node staff to enhance skills and visibility, fostering collaboration within the bioimaging community across Europe. It also supports open science through a dedicated Data Steward at the European Bioinformatics Institute, who will help researchers share data. Additionally, the UK Node will boost academic-industry links, especially aiding SMEs and startups through dedicated events and partnerships, promoting innovation and economic growth.
Dr Georgina Fletcher, manager UK Node and BioImagingUK, said: "Technical staff are crucial to delivery of a successful UK Node. This funding provides dedicated support for these vital team members, increasing their visibility, skills and networks to benefit their own career progression and the broader UK bioimaging ecosystem.”
Open science is fundamental to accelerating discoveries. By providing dedicated support for data sharing, we're helping to ensure that valuable datasets can be reused by the wider community, including for development of new computational approaches and artificial intelligence tools.
