BINA Professional Development Program

Lasted updated – 14 March 2024

Program Details | Courses Supported | Quotes

Overview

BINA will support its North American members working in Canada, Mexico and the United States to attend professional development activities within North America (or virtually, see list of pre-identified opportunities). This support takes the form of partial or full registration support only, coordinated through the organizers of the course/workshop. In unique circumstances BINA may also provide registration support for members not working in Canada, Mexico and the United States who are also members of other emerging national bioimaging networks to attend these North America-based professional development opportunities (see list of pre-identified opportunities).

Please be aware that under this Professional Development (PD) program BINA monetary support is provided through the course/workshop organizers, typically by BINA covering the awarded portion of registration expenses before applicants are billed by the organizers. BINA does not provide reimbursement of expenses directly to the course/workshop applicant. It is also important to note that BINA monetary awards are designed to cover course/workshop registration expenses. In rare cases they may cover lodging and food expenses if these are included with registration, but BINA is unable to cover travel expenses under this program. Please reach out to contact@bioimagingna.org with questions.

Glossary/Definitions

Applicant/Candidates – person attending the course/workshop and applying for BINA support
BINA Administrative team – BINA’s Administrator(s) who will coordinate with the course/workshop organizers and reviewers, and notify applicants of award outcomes
Course/workshop Organizer – Scientific or Administrative organizers of the course/workshop. Submits the course/workshop for consideration for BINA Professional Development Support.
Professional Development Review Committee – BINA leadership (Board and/or working group chairs) reviewing the courses/workshops submitted annually for consideration in the Professional Development Program
Professional Development Review Panel – BINA working group members and past PD recipients reviewing individual course/workshop applicants requesting BINA support to participate in a BINA supported Professional Development course/workshop.

Pre-identified Professional Development Activities

Any BINA member and organizer of a course/workshop is encouraged to submit their course/workshop for consideration through an announcement in our August & September newsletters. In October of each year the BINA Professional Development Review Committee reviews these submissions from the community and identifies courses/workshops to be considered for BINA support during the upcoming calendar year. In the past, BINA has supported participation in the following courses/workshops through partial or full registration support of BINA members accepted in these courses. (Applicants for BINA support are expected to be BINA members at the time of application and BINA membership is free.)

Please note, the institution hosting the course/workshop must be willing and able to provide the Morgridge Institute for Research (the administrators of the BINA CZI award) with a single invoice for the total registration amounts being covered by BINA and adjust registration billing to course/workshop participants accordingly. BINA is unable to provide reimbursement of registration expenses directly to course/workshop participants through this program.

Opportunities for BINA members based outside North America

BINA members working outside of Canada, Mexico or the US, who are members of another bioimaging network organization (eg: Latin America BioImaging, African BioImaging Consortium), may qualify for BINA support to cover registration expenses for North American-based training opportunities. These opportunities will be coordinated through the administrators of the local bioimaging network. Networks interested in collaborating in this way should contact the BINA administrative team at contact@bioimagingna.org, at least three months before the deadline for applications for the course/workshop.

Applicant Review Process

BINA works with the organizers of workshops/courses to develop a timeline so that applicants applying for BINA support will know the outcome of their BINA award prior to when final payment is required for the course/workshop. Typically the course organizers share the BINA application form with candidates that express a need for financial support in order to participate in their course/workshop. BINA’s Professional Development Review Panel for that workshop/course, reviews the applications, deliberates, and then notifies applicants by the date indicated in the application form (generally within 2 weeks of the application submission deadline depending on the number of applicants). Applicants who receive PD support will have their registration amount adjusted by the organizers, and will work with them to make payment of any final amount.

Eligibility for funding after previously receiving BINA PD support: If you receive professional development support from BINA you will not be eligible to receive an additional professional development award for any courses/workshops within the same calendar year. In the subsequent calendar year, preference will be given to applicants that have not previously received professional development support. Two years after the year in which you received support, your application for future professional developments support will be treated equally with other applicants.

Under this program BINA has supported more than 130 members to participate in the courses/workshops indicated below. Comments shared by past course participants.

Courses supported by BINA:

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021

2024 courses/workshops:

BINA members can apply for Professional Development support to cover some or all of the registration fees to participate in the 2024 courses listed below. Notify the course organizers of your need for financial assistance when you apply.

HCBI Tissue Clearing Workshop, Jan 22 – 24 at Harvard BioLabs, Harvard, University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
21st Annual Workshop on FLIM, FRET, and FLIRR (metabolic imaging) microscopy, Mar 4 – 8 at W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Conference and Workshop, May 6 – 11 at MBL Woods Hole, MA, USA. Apply by Feb 26!
Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy, May 17 – 24 at MDIBL, Bar Harbor, ME, USA.
Microscopy data analysis: machine learning and the BioImage Archive, May 22 – 26 EMBL-EBI, Virtual.
Frontiers in Neurophotonics Summer School, May 28 – Jun 7 at CERVO Brain Research Centre, Quebec, Canada.
Leadership and Management in Core Facilities, June 10-13 at Northwestern | Kellogg, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Montreal Light Microscopy Course (MLMC) In Focus: Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscopy, Jul 22 – 26 at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Apply by March 24!
Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences, Aug 13 – 23 at MBL Woods Hole, MA, USA. Apply by Apr 10!
LFD Workshop in Advanced Fluorescence Imaging and Dynamics, Oct 21-25 at UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Microscopy, Optics, Imaging and Analysis in Health Research, Nov 25-29 at University of Manitoba, Canada.

2023 courses/workshops:

Montreal Light Microscopy Fundamentals, Feb 28 – Mar 3 at McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Quantitative Super-resolution Microscopy Workshop, Apr 6 – May 12 at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis, Apr 11 – Apr 25 at CSHL, Long Island, NY, USA.
Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy, Apr 26 – May 05 at MBL Woods Hole, MA, USA.
Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy (LSFM), May 8 – 13 at MBL Woods Hole, MA, USA.
Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy, May 19 – 26 at MDIBL, Bar Harbor, ME, USA.
Microscopy data analysis: Machine learning and the BioImage Archive, May 22 – 26 EMBL-EBI, Virtual.
Embryology, Jun 4 – Jul 17 at MBL Woods Hole, MA USA.
Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences (OMIBS), Aug 14 – 24 at MBL Woods Hole, MA, USA.
17th LFD Workshop in Advanced Fluorescence Imaging and Dynamics, Oct 23 – 27 at The University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
Basics of Optics, Microscopy and Imaging, Nov 27 – Dec 1 at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

2022 courses/workshops (Pilot):

Royal Microscopical Society Core Management, RMS, Virtual.
Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis, at CSHL, Long Island, NY, USA.
Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy, at MBL Woods Hole, MA USA.
Light-Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Conference (LSFM) at MBL Woods Hole, MA USA.
Microscopy data analysis: machine learning and the BioImage Archive, EMBL-EBI, Virtual.
Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy 2022, at MDIBL, Bar Harbor, ME, USA.
Leadership and Management in Core Facilities, at Northwestern, Kellogg, Chicago, IL, USA.
Frontiers in Neurophotonics Summer School, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Optical Microscopy & Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences (OMIBS) at MBL Woods Hole, MA USA.
Hands-On Quantitative Confocal Microscopy Workshop at Salk, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Core Facility Leadership and Management training for BioImaging North America, BINA & hfp-consulting, Virtual.

2021 courses/workshops (Pilot):

Optical Microscopy & Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences (OMIBS) at MBL Woods Hole, MA USA.
Microscopy, Optics & Imaging Manitoba at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

Quotes from Past Members receiving BINA Professional Development support:

Below are some comments shared by past course participants.

“The OMIBS’ 2021 was a blast experience. … I am honored to be admitted to OMIBS’ 2021 and grateful for BINA’s support. The OMIBS 2021 provided me with excellent training and inserted me into a network with first-class microscopists. Now, I will extend the critical knowledge and techniques to faculty members and train a new generation of biomedical researchers in my institution.” Michael Fernandes De Almeida, Optical Microscopy & Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences 2021 – Marine Biological Laboratory participant
“I feel this course was transformative in terms of my approach to light microscopy as a whole!” Anonymous, Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy 2022 – Marine Biological Laboratory participant
“This course provided me an excellent understanding of microscopy fundamentals as well as practical knowledge to apply to my current and future research aims. It also provided me the opportunity to network with both peers and established experts.” Anonymous, Quantitative Imaging From Acquisition to Analysis 2022 -Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory participant
“I got hands-on experience with a variety of microscopy systems that will help me to make informed decisions about purchasing and using my own equipment in the future.” Anonymous, Quantitative Imaging From Acquisition to Analysis 2022 -Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory participant
“The topics reviewed during this course strongly contributed towards the reinforcement of my knowledge in key aspects of my research field, which is going to directly enhance my ability to teach and provide optical microscopy services in my community.” Alejandro Linares, Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy 2022 – Marine Biological Laboratory participant
“I learned that there are many ways to get involved with deep learning for image analysis in a user-friendly way! It was really helpful to get hands-on experience working with them.” Naomi Shvedov, Frontiers in Neurophotonics Summer School 2022 – Université Laval participant
“It has allowed me to think about the strategic challenges shared resources face and given me the tools to confront them.” Anonymous, Leadership and Management in Core Facilities 2022 – Kelloggs/Northwestern participant
“The Kellogg opportunity was a fantastic crash course in business for people managing core facilities and it really solidified a lot of ideas I have had over the years and provided me with tons of actionable items.” James Chambers, Leadership and Management in Core Facilities 2022 – Kelloggs/Northwestern participant