Recognising the importance and impact of Imaging Scientists: Global guidelines for establishing career paths within core facilities.

In the dynamic landscape of scientific research, imaging core facilities are vital hubs propelling collaboration and innovation at the technology development and dissemination frontier. Here, we present a collaborative effort led by Global BioImaging (GBI), introducing international recommendations geared towards elevating the careers of Imaging Scientists in core facilities. Despite the critical role of Imaging Scientists in modern research ecosystems, challenges persist in recognising their value, aligning performance metrics and providing avenues for career progression and job security. The challenges encompass a mismatch between classic academic career paths and service-oriented roles, resulting in a lack of understanding regarding the value and impact of Imaging Scientists and core facilities and how to evaluate them properly. They further include challenges around sustainability, dedicated training opportunities and the recruitment and retention of talent. Structured across these interrelated sections, the recommendations within this publication aim to propose globally applicable solutions to navigate these challenges. These recommendations apply equally to colleagues working in other core facilities and research institutions through which access to technologies is facilitated and supported. This publication emphasises the pivotal role of Imaging Scientists in advancing research programs and presents a blueprint for fostering their career progression within institutions all around the world.

Creating a Career Path for Shared Research Resources Personnel.

Shared research resources are essential to academic research. A rapidly evolving workforce within a highly competitive market is making recruitment and retention of knowledgeable and technically skilled core staff more difficult. The inability to recruit and retain staff diminishes the resource's overall ability to provide services, which in turn affects academic research quality. Research institutions need to recognize that the roles and skills of shared research resource staff are distinguishable from those of research staff in funded investigator laboratories, and in doing so, develop a career path for shared research resource staff that will help these facilities recruit, train, and retain them. This brief focuses on the creation of a standardized career track for shared research resource staff: a career path of at least 3 to 5 tiered positions with task outlines that can be tailored to positions needed in any shared research resource. Salaries will vary for individuals within each position classification based on experience, mastered competencies, and time within the shared research resource. Besides characterizing basic task differences between shared research resource staff and other research personnel, the most compelling reason for having a well-delineated career path for shared research resource staff is to establish fairness, equity, and true opportunity in a supportive working environment, where shared research resource staff are motivated by developing a marketable skill set, gaining professional self-confidence, and earning a meaningful salary. Presented here is a case study from Oregon Health & Science University of the creation of a career path for shared research resource staff.