Photo credits: Thomas Blank
Information for Workshop Providers
GerBI-GMB invites proposals for scientific and educational workshops for TiM2027.
The workshop submission deadline is June 30, 2026.
Trends in Microscopy (TiM) is the biannual scientific conference of German BioImaging – Gesellschaft für Mikroskopie und Bildanalyse e.V. (GerBI-GMB). It is a five-day imaging spring school offering diverse hands-on workshops in state-of-the-art microscopy techniques and image analysis software tools, accompanied by selected talks and posters.
Scientists who are experts in their field will teach advanced microscopy methods, analysis software or artificial intelligence tools to small groups of participants. Sample preparation rooms as well as a cell culture laboratory are available at the venue.
A distinctive feature of TiM is direct on-site data management, enabling images acquired during workshops to be analyzed using the provided image analysis software. This is made possible by a team of data stewards, as well as the provision of the necessary hardware to implement FAIR data principles and to present established workflows.
The TiM2027 program will further include scientific talks, opportunities to practice image analysis and time for networking. Companies are supporting the workshops with equipment and expertise.
Call for Workshops
GerBI-GMB invites proposals for scientific and educational workshops for TiM2027. In the following, the hands-on workshop concept is outlined. Please find the full Workshop Information brochure here to download.
A workshop can be run by one person or by a team of two persons.
The following variants can be accepted:
- one person or a team of two people from academia
- a mixed team of one researcher and one industry member
- two people from industry, only if the team members are from different suppliers.
Workshop providers are kindly requested to attend the entire duration of TiM2027. Academic workshop providers will pay a reduced attendance fee. If you have doubts whether your workshop or team is suitable, please contact the workshop crew.
Workshops primarily target PhD students and postdocs and must have a strong training aspect by providing participants with hands-on experience. Workshops are intended to highlight special imaging techniques or scientific experiments and are ideally conducted on similar microscopes from different manufacturers. Data analysis is encouraged to be part of the workshop. Educational workshops on the fundamentals of optics, research data handling and image analysis are highly welcome.
Workshop providers are expected to bring suitable samples. Sample preparation facilities and a cell culture laboratory with S1 safety level are available on site (for more details see page 8).
The following model organisms are allowed/not allowed:
If you have any doubts about your sample organism, please contact the workshop crew.
The use of S1 samples requires additional information (related to your home lab) such as:
- S1(B1)-project number (Geschäftszeichen)
- S1(B1) project name
- License number of your home S1 area
- Name of the transgenic organism / cell line
- Transgene donor organism
- Transgene recipient
- Name and map of the vector used
Workshop providers can bring their own instrumentation or rely on equipment provided by companies supporting the event. Equipment that can be utilized for two or more workshops will be prioritized due to space constraints. The venue can accommodate (almost) all types of advanced light microscopes.
Workshop evaluation
Submitted workshops will be evaluated by the scientific program committee. The committee will rank workshop proposals based on the following criteria:
- Scientific relevance and innovation
- Extent and quality of hands-on experience
- Training aspects
- Uniqueness and complementarity of the described techniques
The ranking will result in grade 1-4 as follows:
1 – Highly recommended
2 – Recommended with minor revisions
3 – Could be recommended after clarifying open questions
4 – Not recommended
Workshop selection
In addition to their ranking provided by the scientific program committee the organizers will have to consider space and technical restrictions on site. Consequently, not every equipment can be hosted, especially the S1 working area is very limited. The decision on accepted workshops will be sent out in October 2026.
Instrument providers will be able to bring at best one large microscope system to the venue. Instrumentation that can be utilized in several workshops will be preferred.
Workshops during TiM2027 can utilize the resources provided on site:
Small equipment
- Cell culture incubator (37°C, 5% CO2) and zebrafish incubator
- Laboratory Safety Cabinet with suction system for cell culture
- Pasteur pipettes glass with plastic suction cap
- Pipet boy & sterile pasteur glass pipettes
- 4°C fridge & -20°C freezer
- Water bath (with disinfectant)
- Adjustable heating block
- Pipettes with holder and tips in various sizes
- Vortex & ultrasound bath
- Centrifuge
- Microwave
- Autoclave
- Waste containers (table top and large for cell culture)
- Ice boxes & Ice packs
- Spray bottles and wash bottles with water and 70% EtOH
Chemicals
- 70% EtOH
- Sterile distilled water
- Sterile MilliQ water
- Sterilium
- Bacillol detergens for surfaces
Disposable material
- Eppis 1,5ml
- Petridishes
- Multiwell plates
- Trypan blue
- Scalpels
- Forceps
- Slides
- Cover slips #1.5 high precision
Large equipment kindly provided by manufacturers
Equipment manufacturers are highly appreciated for providing necessary instrumentation to run the workshops. We are very grateful for the fantastic support during the previous TiM events!
For TiM2027, equipment providers of microscopy instrumentation occupying one workshop location during the event will be charged approximately 3.500 € (including one company representative on site), or approximately 4.500 € (for two representatives on site). The final fees may change depending on expected price increases from the venue and catering providers. Company representatives may take turns during TiM2027; however, no more than the booked number of representatives may be present on site at the same time.
On-site provided infrastructure (e.g. cell culture, data infrastructure) will not be charged.
All workshops are encouraged to make use of the IT infrastructure deployed on-site: Microscopy workshop providers are invited to deposit their data on a shared data repository for reuse and publication, while image analysis workshops may use local shared computing resources to offer participants pre-made processing environments. It is however important to note that the support of the latter will be offered based on the proposed services (see services below), the openness (open source > licensed) and the community adoption (established & supported > experimental & solo-maintained) of the demonstrated tool.
Services
- Centralized storage accessible remotely by all participants on campus with file-shares.
- OMERO server
- Has access to the centralized storage (data is imported “in-place”)
- API for Fiji, QuPath, Python
- Jupyter-Hub:
- Access to the centralized storage
- Pre-cooked python environment on demand
- Converter to OME-Zarr (bioformats2raw) and OME-TIFF (raw2ometiff)
- Windows server with Remote Desktop connection
- Access to the centralized storage
Common image analysis software installations (QuPath, Fiji, ilastik)
Because TiM is a demonstrator for cutting edge microscopy techniques, it makes it the perfect incubator and playground for data management: testing the interoperability of proprietary image file formats; annotation of data to index the type of image, sample and preparation method; ingestion of data in a data management software and its input to image processing pipelines.
Generally, this constitutes the data management concept at TiM. This is a long-lasting endeavor occurring before TiM with the deployment of services and the consultation of workshop providers during the main event with a team of data stewards collecting and annotating data after TiM with the final publication of the gathered datasets in a public OMERO server.
TiM2027 will take place at Albgut-Altes Lager Münsingen. The main workshop areas and lecture hall are located in the “Württemberg Palais”. It provides a central lecture hall of 310 sqm, several separate workshop rooms, and a fully functional S1 laboratory area. There will be additional workshop areas in further buildings on the venue.
The total number of attendants will be around 250. Accommodation can be provided on site for the vast majority of academic participants.
Albgut – Altes Lager
albgut GmbH
Hahnensteig
72525 Münsingen
48°24’56.3″N, 9°32’19.5″E
Albgut from above. Credits: Thomas Blank
NN/OpenGeoDB, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
How to run a Workshop
Workshops during TiM2027 will be intense training sessions featuring hands-on experience and open discussions fostering knowledge exchange. Please consider the following guidelines during the workshop planning.
Workshops should last 2-2.5 hours and will be offered 2-3 times. Please stay within this time frame. Microscopy workshops are planned for 6-8 students. Dedicated image analysis, data management, and software workshops are planned for up to 15 students.
Begin with an introduction of the workshop providers and participants.
Workshops are intended to create an open and interactive discussion between workshop providers and participants. One main goal is to get each participant actively and practically involved. Please encourage questions and ensure that participants feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions. Please reserve some time to demonstrate the analysis of the acquired data and to upload the results to the on-site data management system (you will be trained beforehand and supported during the event by the data steward team).
Prepare a workshop summary to be handed out to the participants. Close the workshop with a constructive feedback session.
Workshop Organizing Team
Contact: workshops.tim2027@gerbi-gmb.de
Hubert Bauch (Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH), Barbara Biermann (LiMiTec Bielefeld), Tom Boissonnet (CAi Düsseldorf), Christian Feldhaus (MPI Biologie Tübingen), Hella Hartmann (CMCB, TU Dresden), Bastian Hülsmann (JGU Mainz), Roland Nitschke (University Freiburg), Lisa Schaefer (GerBI-GMB), Olaf Selchow (Freelance consulting)
