CCI Data Management Plan
CCI provides infrastructure for the secure and efficient flow of microscopy data, from image acquisition through transfer, processing and analysis. This page describes how data are handled within CCI, how our data infrastructure connects with image analysis services, and the responsibilities of users and their research organisations for the subsequent storage, preservation and archiving of research data.
Modern microscopy can generate large and complex datasets that require dedicated infrastructure for transfer, processing and analysis. CCI provides a data management workflow that supports microscopy data from acquisition through processing and analysis, until the data and associated results are transferred to the researcher’s designated storage solution.
CCI infrastructure is intended for data transfer, temporary data management, processing and analysis. It is not intended for long-term preservation or archiving of research data. Researchers are responsible for transferring their data from CCI infrastructure to storage provided or approved by their research organisation, in accordance with applicable institutional requirements for research data management and archiving.
How data flow through CCI
Data generated at CCI follow different paths depending on whether further image processing or analysis is required.
Image acquisition → CCI data infrastructure → Data download → Researcher's storage
or
Image acquisition → CCI data infrastructure → Image processing and analysis → Researcher's storage
This workflow allows microscopy data to move from acquisition systems to computational resources without relying on portable storage devices and provides a common entry point for CCI's image analysis services.
From the microscope to OMERO
For supported imaging systems, data acquired at CCI are transferred from the microscope to OMERO, CCI's platform for managing and accessing microscopy image data.
OMERO provides researchers with access to their acquired datasets and preserves the association between image data and the metadata generated by the imaging system.
Users can access their datasets through the OMERO web interface.
How to access and use CCI OMERO
Downloading your data
CCI infrastructure provides temporary access to microscopy data. Researchers should download their data and transfer them to their research group's appropriate storage solution.
Depending on the dataset and workflow, data can be downloaded directly from OMERO or accessed through CCI's data transfer infrastructure.
How to download data from OMERO
How to connect to the CCI server
Connecting data management with image analysis
Data do not necessarily need to leave the CCI infrastructure before image analysis.
CCI provides dedicated computational resources and support for processing and analysing microscopy datasets. Depending on the project, data can be accessed from CCI workstations or processing servers and used with commercial software, open-source tools, or custom analysis workflows developed together with CCI image analysts.
After processing and analysis, researchers are responsible for transferring relevant image data, derived data and analysis results to their own storage solution.
For information about available support, computational resources and service models, see CCI Image Analysis.
Data acquired outside CCI
CCI's image analysis services are also available for datasets acquired outside the facility.
External datasets can be transferred to CCI computational infrastructure when required for an image analysis project. The appropriate transfer method and computational resources depend on the size of the dataset and the analysis workflow and can be discussed with the CCI image analysis team.
See CCI Image Analysis for information about image analysis support and how to start a project.
Data management responsibilities
CCI provides infrastructure for the secure transfer, temporary management, processing and analysis of microscopy data. Researchers remain responsible for the long-term management, storage, backup and archiving of their research data.
To protect acquisition systems and maintain sufficient storage capacity:
- Data must not be stored on microscope computers longer than required for transfer to CCI infrastructure.
- USB drives and other portable storage devices must not be connected to microscope computers.
- CCI transfer and processing infrastructure must not be used for long-term data storage.
- Data stored temporarily on CCI infrastructure should be transferred to the researcher's storage solution as soon as the relevant acquisition or analysis workflow is complete.
Guides and practical information
For step-by-step instructions, see the CCI documentation.
