Euro-BioImaging and EGI to Continue Collaboration in the Coming Years
Euro-BioImaging ERIC is a distributed Research Infrastructure (RI) which brings together nearly 300 state-of-the-art imaging facilities offering a comprehensive range of cutting-edge technologies in biological and biomedical imaging for scientists across Europe and beyond. It coordinates access to biological and biomedical imaging technologies, training and expertise at these facilities. In addition, it provides key services around generation, analysis, management and archiving of FAIR bioimage data, together with its facilities, users and the wider scientific community. Euro-BioImaging’s Hub coordinates the infrastructure and represents the interests of the imaging community in the European and global research landscape.
EGI and Euro-BioImaging have been collaborating since 2025 to support the provision of a digital infrastructure for BAND, and the current Service Level Agreement has just been extended until 31st March 2027. BAND (Bioimage ANalysis Desktop) offers a user-friendly environment for image analysis and tools development. Accessible through a web browser, BAND provides a fully equipped analysis environment with a wide range of tools and programming frameworks that enable efficient large-scale image processing. BAND has been used under the current collaboration set-up, between April 2025 and February 2026, to deliver 13 training courses to over 250 users , located in 12 countries in Europe, 7 in Africa, 8 in Asia and Oceania, and 3 in America.
“We used BAND in an LMIC setting with the majority of people who had never done image analysis before. BAND enabled the use of CellPose and Stardist to segment pathogenic yeasts, moulds and label-free immune cells, which would have been very difficult if not almost impossible otherwise. Now these researchers from all over Africa will be using these tools with almost no barrier now. Really can’t commend BAND enough!” users from various institutions in Africa report.
“Analysing and processing large and complex bioimaging data, including deploying advanced AI methods, requires access to extensive compute infrastructure. BAND virtual desktop creates an environment of familiar tools, and is extensively used by the Euro-BioImaging community for training users and staff in advanced image processing methods. The compute resources made available through EGI are hence crucial to provide such essential training. We are extremely happy to continue this valuable collaboration.” says, Aastha Mathur, Head of Image Data Services at Euro-BioImaging ERIC.
The operation of BAND is secured by CESNET and GRNET, long-standing members of the EGI Federation. In particular, CESNET provides 120 virtual Cloud CPU cores, up to 10 GPUs for training courses, and 5 TB of Online Storage to Euro-BioImaging, while GRNET ensures secure authentication via EGI Check-in. Without these resources, it would not be possible to run BAND and support the impactful training activities of the bioimaging research community.
