BioImagingUK LM Survey 2020: What is the structure of our infrastructure?
(The survey is now closed - thank you to everyone who participated)
We are running this survey to collect information about the structure, operation, and funding of light microscopy facilities in the United Kingdom. Our hope is that the data will provide a factual basis for promoting best practice, tuning the structure of BioImagingUK, and influencing science funding policy. We realise there are a wide variety of imaging modalities supported through core facilities, including LM, EM, pre-clinical, and (potentially) clinical. In order to make the task more manageable this survey is primarily focussed on light microscopy.
The first section aims to collect information about facility staff themselves, and includes questions on salary and career trajectory loosely modelled on a recent survey of London LM facility mangers. The second section covers typical operational issues, and recapitulates the questions behind figures 2 and 3 of Fernando-May et al. (Mic Res & Tech 79:463–479 (2016)) to facilitate direct comparison between German and UK LM imaging facilities. The final section goes beyond operational questions to probe how facilities are structured, funded, and reviewed.
If you are a Facility Manager the survey should take about 30 min, as we are asking for detailed operational information. If you are Facility Staff, it should take around 10 mins to complete.
The survey results will be strictly anonymised, treated with utmost confidence, and handled in line with current GDPR (especially the salary information). In the interest of data anonymity there is no login.
Our goal is to publish an analysis of the results in a suitable journal, such as the Journal of Microscopy, within the next 6 - 8 months. If you want to contact anyone about the survey, please email either Georgina Fletcher, BioImagingUK Project Officer (georgina@rms.org.uk) or Kurt Anderson (kurt.anderson@crick.ac.uk).
Please do not take this survey if you work outside the UK and please do not take it more than once.
The survey is open for 4 weeks until Tuesday 5th May 2020 and the link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2ZRDCQM
Thank you for taking part,
Kurt Anderson, Peter O’Toole, Tanya Whitfield and Georgina Fletcher
BioImagingUK Working Group on UK Facility Structure/Funding