OME Transition

Over the past two decades, OME has grown into a vibrant and global community dedicated to developing open standards, tools, and resources for the management, sharing, and analysis of microscopy image data. It has been a privilege and a joy to work alongside so many of you to build OME into the trusted and widely recognized initiative it is today.

As many of you know, I have joined CZI to contribute to their work on bioimaging data, so I will no longer be leading OME. For the avoidance of doubt, and because several people have asked: I am not “taking” OME to CZI– no such thing is possible as OME does not “belong” to anyone. I very much hope that CZI teams and resources can make important and useful contributions to OME, just as they do for many other community efforts and projects, but that is for the future.

I want to reassure everyone that the future of OME is secure and that its mission remains unchanged. To ensure continuity, I have asked Jean-Marie Burel (University of Dundee), Josh Moore (German BioImaging), Stefanie Weidtkamp-Peters (HHU), Matthew Hartley (EMBL-EBI), and Virginie Uhlmann (University of Zurich) to form an interim leadership team. Together, they will ensure the immediate continuity of OME’s offerings– web site, software, CI, and meetings– and keep the community updated on plans and progress.

You might ask: “Why these people and not others? Why this number and not more (or less)?”. Good question. Here’s the thinking:

OME should grow and expand but how? An obvious way forward is to engage an interim team comprised of members of the community who have contributed to OME in various ways, start building ideas and knowledge and then run a full community process to chart a path forward. This group will therefore form an interim leadership group and, with the community’s input, guide OME to its next phase.

The interim leadership is not a final or exclusive structure, but a group of people and their teams and/or institutions that have expertise in file formats, software tools and data resources. They also have access to resources– funding and teams- to ensure that OME remains successful and productive while we plan for its future. The next OME meeting, in April 2026, will provide an opportunity for the team to seek feedback from the broader community on OME’s long term mission, structure, and governance arrangements. A major goal for 2026 will be to define strategic and governance plans for OME’s future.

OME has always thrived thanks to the commitment and creativity of its community. I am confident that, with your continued support, OME will not only maintain its strong foundations but will also grow in new and exciting directions. The work ahead is full of promise, and I look forward to watching OME’s future successes from a different perspective.

Jason Swedlow

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