CCMA 2017 in Montreal

The Canadian Cytometry and Microscopy Association (CCMA) and the Microscopical Society of Canada (MSC) are hosting a joint meeting, and we invite you to participate.

Please save the date: May 9-12, 2017

See you in 2017 in Montreal!

CCMA Mission

Establish the exchange of information between Canadian and international laboratories that use cytometry and/or microscopy, through collaborations, meetings, symposia and the diffusion of information.
Facilitate and organize training events and conferences.
Create and develop quality standards for flow cytometry and microscopy.
Promote cytometry in order to inform the next generation of « cytometrists ».

A Survey for Core Facility Managers

Core Facility Managers across Canada are invited to fill in a short (7 question) online survey on their facility staffing, instruments, and operating budget.

More information

In exchange for answering the survey, facilities will receive FREE advertising on the CCMA website and will automatically become CCMA members if desired.

If you don’t know the answer(s) to some questions (especially the budget questions), please, try to obtain the information or ask your facility director to fill out the survey. Answers will be kept anonymous, and the survey analysis and white paper will be made available to the survey participants.

What is the CCMA and why does it run a survey?

The CCMA (Canadian Cytometry and Microscopy Association) was founded in 2005 as the Canadian Cytometry Association, and renamed in 2011 when light microscopy based scientists began to play a significant role in the association. The CCMA is a non-profit organization promoting all aspects of cytometry, including flow cytometry, light microscopy and numeric imaging. The CCMA inter-connects academic core facilities from various fields across Canada to promote more efficient communication as well as a better understanding of technology and facility management among Canadian core facilities. Since 2009, a Core Facility Managers’ (CFM) meeting has been organized as a part of the bi-annual CCMA symposia. These Core Facility Managers’ meetings have gained in popularity and about 60 attendees (managers from all across Canada and a representative from the CFI) participated at the CCMA CFM meeting in Montreal in June 2013. The CFM meeting covered many issues that are important for core facilities to discuss and resolve including training, education and funding and sustaining core facilities.

The Director of Programs for the CFI attended the core facility managers meeting and it was clear that the CFI has an interest in sustaining core facilities, and is open to engaging the CCMA with further discussions. The first step for the CCMA is to write a white paper to the CFI to depict an accurate portrait of the current state of Canadian core facilities and to help granting agencies understand the challenges faced by shared resource labs. The above-mentioned online survey will help us gather as much data as possible on core facility staffing, instruments, and operating budgets.

Who is running the survey?

The redaction of the white paper to CFI is led by Claire Brown (McGill University), Gisele Knowles (Sunnybrook Research Institute) who are CCMA co-presidents; with the help of other CCMA executives: James Jonkman (University Health Network), Guillaume Lesage (McGill University), Christopher Spring (St. Michael’s Hospital) and Marie-Hélène Lacombe (McGill University Health Center Research Institute); and with Thomas Stroh (Montreal Neurological Institute) and the CCMA Outreach committee composed of Xuejun Sun (University of Alberta), Christine Zhang (University of Manitoba) and Erika Wee (McGill University). This team of experienced scientists are actively involved in research and in core facility operations, management and networking. The team will advocate for the future and sustainability of Canadian core facilities.

It is important that granting agencies are aware of the challenges facing core facilities! We are hopeful that we can influence how the CFI is thinking about core facility funding. Then if CFI decides to fund core facility operating costs we will already have a seat at the table and be able to have input into how the funding programs are developed.