Yes, that’s right! During 2024 I was lucky enough to be part of the first cohort of Ambassadors of Euro-BioImaging and it was great! Let me tell you how it all happened:
HOW IT STARTED
Everything started on November 23, when I applied for the first call of this program. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but I applied because I was interested in learning more about the EuBI and getting more people in the UK to know and engage with it. The result of my selection came out on 08/01, which gave me a very happy start for 2024!
The onboard meeting happened on 08/03 where I met the EuBI’s team and all my fellow Ambassadors (you can meet us all here). During this meeting, we were also given information and ideas to develop our mission as ambassadors.
HOW IT WENT
The first step during the running phase was to educate ourselves on the EuBI’s organization, functioning, services, etc. This happened during a series of short seminars that we could easily fit into our schedules. The presenters were all very engaging and knowledgeable and the small sessions made it all more productive. Once we were well prepared to talk about EuBI to our target audiences, it was up to us to make it happen as we chose.
Luckily for me, the Ambassador program coincided with the year that I had the most science events yet and I took every single opportunity to present Euro-BioImaging to the attendees. I did it during:
Microbiology Society Congress 2024 (speaker)
2x seminars at The Pirbright Institute (speaker)
Translation UK 2024 (chair)
Pirbright’s Imaging Viruses 2024 (organizer & chair)
Oxford Biomedical Imaging Festival (attendee)
…and also, during other events I’ve attended/presented and everyday conversations with colleagues and collaborators.
We were obviously dully supported along the way by the awesome EuBI team, always at our disposal via email or fortnightly office hours. We also had a Slack group and monthly meetings with the whole cohort to update ourselves on EuBI’s news and opportunities, and to get to know what the other Ambassadors were doing.
There were also many opportunities for us as ambassadors to engage with EuBI itself and the extended community in events. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I couldn’t take part in most of them, but I was happy to see other ambassadors embracing these opportunities.
HOW IT ENDED
It hasn’t actually! Attending requests, the end date has been postponed from Oct/24 to Mar/25 for those interested (like me!). I did it so I could include in my list of achievements as an ambassador the organization of "The Pirbright Institute’s Imaging Viruses 2024", which was a huge success btw! I also have plans to create some written pieces about EuBI in the upcoming months.
MY FINAL BALANCE
It has been such a great run!
It is indeed a win-win opportunity for both sides! EuBI could be talked about among audiences they would hardly reach otherwise. In my case, I think it was a fortuitous year to advertise the EuBI among UK-based scientists as the UK has re-joined the Horizon Europe program. I was genuinely surprised by how many microscopists I met here who have never heard of EuBI. So I am pretty sure my contribution as ambassador has had some impact in the UK audience, even if small.
On my side, I was very happy to advertise such a great platform of collaborative science that is expanding and nurturing an awesome community of bioimaging experts, users and enthusiasts. It was great to be part of it and to take this opportunity to project myself professionally along the way. 2024 was a year of big investment in my professional image and being part of the EuBI Ambassador Program has only added to it.
Link here those who are interested in becoming the next EuBI Ambassadors. I couldn’t recommend it more to early-career professionals interested in bioimaging!
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