Collaborate with BioMIID!!!
Is BioMIID a core?
No. Core instrumentation facilities are an incredible resource, serving the bioimaging community extremely well for many years, and will continue to in the future. However, BioMIID recognizes the unique needs of disseminating complex custom instrumentation. Part of this is an understanding that a classical core “charge back” model to sustain the operation financially doesn’t work. Quite simply, the nature of the instruments require more support, such that supporting it through a charge back mechanism is not practical or sustainable. In addition, many of our experiments last for days at a time, and not uncommonly a week (or more) which is quite cost prohibitive if investigators are “on the hook” for hourly rates. As such, it is unrealistic to charge collaborators an hourly rate in order to fund our personnel and facility needs. Lastly, a big part of what we do is to encourage our collaborators to ask big risky questions! This inherently comes with a high risk of failure. However, for the ideas that do work, they stand to make high impact in their respective fields! Charging per hour tends to stifle that risk-taking mentality, in favor of a more safe approach, and incremental progress may result. This is especially true for younger PI’s that can’t afford to risk such failure early in their career, and potentially eat into precious startup funds.
Well, that sounds great, but how do you “float the boat” financially with these complex systems and specialized staff to support them?
BioMIID operates under two primary financial strategies, with the first being our own internal technology development projects, and second, a highly collaborative model, whereby our “currency” is grants and papers. More specifically, we encourage interested collaborators with experiments relevant for our fleet of instruments, to work with us to generate high-impact preliminary data as part of grant applications. If the grant is funded, and continued collaboration with us is anticipated to add value to proposed studies, we simply ask PI’s to include us in their grant to: (a) help offset a percentage of staff effort commensurate with the anticipated work, (b) temporary data storage, and (c) if needed, any hardware/software updates to accomplished planned studies. The thought process is scientific collaboration, rather than providing a “service” such that we become extended team members, co-authors (as appropriate), and advisors in your science!​
Great! How do I know what to budget as part of planned collaborative work?
Just email us! (BioMIID@Vanderbilt.edu)
In addition to line items and justifications common to most scientific collaborations we engage with, we can also help you with numbers related to effort, storage, and hardware/software needs in line with requested work. Typically this saves substantial cost vs. "going it alone" with respect to storage, compute, and software needs. We can provide well polished documentation for your grant with respect to our [next gen] facilities and resources, data management plan, and personnel expertise, that are sure to strengthen your application!​
No problem. We also highly encourage investigators to work with us even if they have a previously awarded grant, where our collaborative support has not been anticipated, but would add value to ongoing studies. If you think working with us may provide critical insight/data, we are thrilled to work with you to provide this component of high-impact publications as co-authors. Such collaborative work is beneficial for our operation and scientific productivity as well, and we consider it an investment into future collaborative funding together. We encourage you to reach out via BioMIID@Vanderbilt.edu to request a team consult to explore how a potential collaboration may, or may not, be right for your project!​
So, what if I already have a grant that I’d like to collaborate with BioMIID on, but didn’t budget for?
Is BioMIID a collaborative center strictly for Vanderbilt research labs?
Absolutely not! We currently work with labs globally and welcome collaboration of all types! Reach out to us about internal, external, or commercial collaborations and partnerships.
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