This information was initially shared on Wellcome's website.

Wellcome has announced its Bioimaging Technology Development Awards. The call supports ambitious technology development programmes led by proficient and diverse teams. Awarded teams will develop tools and technologies to overcome barriers to progress in bioimaging. 

Visit the call's webpage for more details or read below for an overview, but please note the following: the lead applicants must be based in the UK, Republic of Ireland or in a low- or middle-income countries (apart from India and mainland China). However, co-applicants can be based anywhere in the world.

The call and the teams

The call looks for teams that will advance technologies to investigate biological phenomena at the cell-tissue scale. Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Cell atlasing – how can novel bioimaging technologies and their combination with other omics help identify all cell types at the molecular level?
• Connectomics – how can novel bioimaging technologies pave the way to a full map of the neuronal connections in the mammalian brain?
• Dynamic biology – how can novel technologies improve temporal resolution in bioimaging to advance our understanding of how organisms function, adapt and respond to their surroundings?
• Systems – how can novel bioimaging technologies allow the characterisation of dynamics and structure of complete biological systems?
• Imaging data handling – novel data management strategies are needed to simplify image acquisition, analysis and data sharing. New tools are needed to support the integration of bioimaging data with other types of biological information.
• Overcoming barriers to bioimaging in low-resource settings – how can novel or existing technologies be adapted to advance discovery research in low-resource settings?

Wellcome believes that the best way to achieve technological innovations to answer biological questions is to develop them in collaboration with the researchers who will use them. Therefore, a key criterion for selection will be for teams to include both technology developers and researchers using bioimaging technologies to answer important discovery research questions.

The teams must aim to make a major contribution to the field of bioimaging by developing novel tools that will either:

• advance the current state-of-the-art standards in bioimaging, or
• significantly lower barriers to bioimaging in low-resource settings

The teams and their technological innovations must be guided by a research question that aims to improve understanding of human life, health or wellbeing.

Duration  of award and level of funding