*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopyPost images on
http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
*****
In April 2014 the ISAC SRL Task Force sent out a survey to its SRL membership, as well as other identified sources of SRL individuals, to gather information to identify the current trends/needs of SRLs and their staff as well as to provide insight into the future directions of ISAC. There were over 260 responses from 27 countries, the majority of which were from Europe or the Americas.
The results of ISAC's 2014 Survey on SRL Career Tracks and Best Practices were extremely enlightening and contain some very valuable information that will be useful to those who administer, direct and work in a SRL environment. For example:
* While 60% of the respondents have been working in cytometry for over 10 years, 50% have been in their current jobs for 5 years or less, indicating the field of cytometry has quite a bit of mobility for those employed in the field. Over 80% of these respondents hold no certifications and over 60% are in permanent positions.
* When determining best practices for a SRL, the most important aspects are user education, QA/QC and work safety.
* The ideal ratio of employees per cytometry instrument is greater than what is reported and nearly one half of the SRLs serve more than 100 customers, indicating a general sense that SRLs are understaffed. The average number of full time employees in a Cytometry Shared Resource Lab is 3.22
* The majority of comments regarding other challenges in a SRL related to funding or institutional support.
You may find the survey online on ISAC's Web site at:
http://isac-net.org/PDFS/7a/7a324bd4-dc60-41f3-a8b3-6248bc251dd3.pdfThe information from the survey is also being used to guide ISAC, though activities of the SRL Task Force, for ways to promote career opportunities and ISAC benefits for those members within SRLs. Many of the workshops organized for the SRL track at CYTO2014 were identified from information acquired through the survey. In addition, an effort to define and establish Best Practices within an SRL was initiated at CYTO2014 based on the top five areas of importance identified by the survey. The SRL Task Force is continuing to refine the details of the "Best Practices" identified as being the most critical components.
The results of the survey have lots of detailed information on demographics as well as operational issues and we hope that you will find the information useful in your future planning/budgeting for your SRL, as well as yours and your staff's career development.
We thank all those who participated in the survey and the SRL Task Force under the leadership of Derek Davies, for their efforts in sorting through the information and producing this report, especially Monica DeLay and Rui Gardner who tirelessly worked on how to best present the data.
Michelle Butler, CAE
Executive Director
International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC)
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 634-7454 (p)
(301) 634-7429 (f)
[hidden email]
Locked
