22 Jun 2022

The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) and BioImagingUK become supporters of the Technician Commitment

The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) and BioImagingUK are both proud to announce that we have joined the Technician Commitment as supporters.

The Technician Commitment is a university and research institution initiative, led by a steering board of sector bodies, with support from the Science Council and the Gatsby Foundation’s Technicians Make It Happen campaign.

The Commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines. Universities and research institutes are invited to become signatories of the Technician Commitment and pledge action against the key challenges affecting their technical staff.

Technical and support staff play a tremendous role in scientific and microscopy-related research, not only in terms of laboratory support, but also through their contributions to the research itself. Their invaluable expertise, knowledge and skill can sometimes be overlooked, and it is right that research institutes and other organisations should pledge action to address the needs of those working in these roles, ensuring their skills and professional development are a firm priority. We are proud to sign up to this excellent initiative.

Professor Grace Burke

RMS President

As a Society, our core aim is to advance the science of microscopy, imaging and flow cytometry, which simply cannot be done unless those working right across our community have the support they need to make those advances – not least those who maintain, operate and advise on the use of the technology itself. Alongside our partners, Bioimaging UK, we see the Technician Commitment as an important step for organisations right across the academic and research sectors – a huge number of which are represented by our members.

Allison Winton

RMS Chief Executive

Imaging is essential to driving life science research discoveries and requires significant support from lots of amazing technical staff, whose contributions often go unrecognised. BioImagingUK and the RMS represent the interests of the UK Imaging Scientist community and as such, are strongly supportive of any efforts to champion the important roles played by technicians who participate in imaging-related research areas. The Technician Commitment is an excellent initiative to both celebrate these achievements and improve the recognition, visibility and career development of all technicians. Ultimately, technicians are indispensable members of the multi-disciplinary teams involved in image-based discoveries, and by supporting the Technician Commitment we are hopefully taking important steps to acknowledge this.

Professor Maddy Parsons

BioImagingUK Lead

The technical community enables world leading research, teaching and knowledge exchange. Technical colleagues ensure accuracy, rigour and development of key technologies, particularly in imaging and microscopy. We’re delighted to welcome the Royal Microscopical Society and BioImagingUK to our community of Technician Commitment Supporters and Signatories and we look forward to working with them to advance visibility, recognition and opportunity for the technical community across UK research, education and innovation.

Kelly Vere MBE

Programme Director, Technician Commitment

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