Building a FAIR image data ecosystem for microscopy communities

Bioimaging has now entered the era of big data with faster-than-ever development of complex microscopy technologies leading to increasingly complex datasets. This enormous increase in data size and informational complexity within those datasets has brought with it several difficulties in terms of common and harmonized data handling, analysis, and management practices, which are currently hampering the full potential of image data being realized. Here, we outline a wide range of efforts and solutions currently being developed by the microscopy community to address these challenges on the path towards FAIR bioimaging data. We also highlight how different actors in the microscopy ecosystem are working together, creating synergies that develop new approaches, and how research infrastructures, such as Euro-BioImaging, are fostering these interactions to shape the field.

Automated summary

Bioimaging is facing challenges in handling, analyzing, and managing the increasingly complex datasets due to the rapid development of microscopy technologies. Efforts and solutions are being developed by the microscopy community to address these challenges, and collaborations within the microscopy ecosystem, as well as research infrastructures like Euro-BioImaging, are shaping the field.