About Us | Open Microscopy Environment (OME)

<!doctype html> <html class="no-js" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head>  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-49953125-6"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-49953125-6'); </script> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <meta name="description" content="OME produces open tools to support data management for microscopy. Learn more here." /> <meta property="og:image" content="/img/logos/ome-logo_fb.png" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta property="og:url" content="" /> <meta property="og:title" content="The Open Microscopy Environment" /> <meta property="og:description" content="A consortium of universities, research labs, industry and developers producing open-source software and format standards for microscopy data." /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"> <meta name="twitter:title" content="The Open Microscopy Environment"> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.openmicroscopy.org/img/logos/ome-logomark_twitter.png"> <title>About Us | Open Microscopy Environment (OME)</title>  <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/apple-touch-icon.png?v=2"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/favicon-32x32.png?v=2"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/favicon-16x16.png?v=2"> <link rel="manifest" href="/site.webmanifest?v=2"> <link rel="mask-icon" href="/safari-pinned-tab.svg?v=2" color="#5bbad5"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico?v=2"> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#2b5797"> <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff">  <link rel="me" href="https://fosstodon.org/@ome"/> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,600,700,400italic,600italic,700italic"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat:400,500"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="/css/font-awesome.min.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="/css/foundation.min.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="/css/openmicroscopy.css"> </head> <body> <div class="title-bar" data-responsive-toggle="main-menu" data-hide-for="medium"> <button class="menu-icon" type="button" data-toggle></button> <div class="title-bar-title"></div> </div>  <div class="main-nav-bar top-bar" id="main-menu"> <div class="top-bar-left"> <ul class="vertical medium-horizontal dropdown menu" data-responsive-menu="accordion medium-dropdown"> <li class="hide-for-small-only"><a class="logo" href="/index.html"><img src="/img/logos/ome-main-nav.svg" alt="OME logo" /></a></li> <li class="show-for-small-only"><a href="/index.html"><img src="/img/logos/ome-logomark.svg" alt="OME logo" style="height:32px; width:32px;"/></a></li> <li class="has-submenu"><a href="/about/">About Us</a> <ul class="submenu menu vertical" data-submenu> <li><a href="/about/">Overview</a></li> <li><a href="/teams/">OME Teams</a></li> <li><a href="/contributors/">Contributors</a></li> <li><a href="/commercial-partners/">Commercial Partners</a></li> <li><a href="/licensing/">Licensing</a></li> <li><a href="/citing-ome/">Citing OME</a></li> <li><a href="/artwork/">Artwork</a></li> <li><a href="/training/">Training</a></li> <li><a href="/events/ome-community-meeting-2024/">OME 2024</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="has-submenu"><a href="/news/">News</a> <ul class="submenu menu vertical" data-submenu> <li><a href="/news/">Overview</a></li> <li><a href="/announcements/">Announcements</a></li> <li><a href="/events/">Events</a></li> <li><a href="/minutes/">Minutes</a></li> <li><a href="/security/">Security</a></li> <li><a href="/careers/">Careers</a></li> <li><a href="/blog/">Blog</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-bar-right"> <ul class="vertical medium-horizontal dropdown menu" data-responsive-menu="accordion medium-dropdown"> <li class="has-submenu"><a href="/products/">Products</a> <ul class="submenu menu vertical" data-submenu> <li><a href="/products/">Overview</a></li> <li><a href="/omero/">OMERO</a></li> <li><a href="/bio-formats/">Bio-Formats</a></li> <li><a href="/ome-files/">OME Files</a></li> <li><a href="https://ngff.openmicroscopy.org/">OME-NGFF</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="has-submenu"><a href="/support/">Support</a> <ul class="submenu menu vertical" data-submenu> <li><a href="/support/">Overview</a></li> <li><a href="/security/">Security</a></li> <li><a href="/training/">Training</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="/docs/">Docs</a></li> <li class="hide-for-small-only"><a href="/explore/" class="button btn-indigo" style="color: #eceff1; margin-left: 10px;">Explore</a></li> <li class="show-for-small-only"><a href="/explore/">Explore</a></li> </ul> </div> </div>  <a name="top-of-page"></a> <div class="menu-subnav" id="about-menu"> <div class="row"> <ul class="vertical medium-horizontal dropdown menu-subnav menu expanded small-12 columns" data-responsive-menu="accordion medium-dropdown"> <li><a href="#goals">Project Goals</a></li> <li><a href="#funding">Funding</a></li> <li><a href="#consortium">The OME Consortium</a></li> <li><a href="#standards">Community Standards</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="callout large primary" id="bg-image-about"> <div class="row column text-center"> <h1>About OME</h1> <p class="hero-subheader small-12 medium-10 medium-offset-1">We are a multi-site collaborative effort among academic laboratories and a number of commercial entities.</p> </div> </div>  <hr class="whitespace"> <div class="row text-center"> <img style="margin-bottom: 30px; max-height: 80px;" alt="OME logo" src="/img/logos/ome.svg"> </div> <div class="row column text-center"> <h2>The Open Microscopy Environment</h2> <hr> <p class="medium-10 medium-offset-1">We produce open tools to support data management for microscopy. Designed to interact with existing commercial software, all OME formats and software are free, and all OME source code is available under the GNU General public license or more permissive open source licenses, or through a commercial license from <a href="/commercial-partners/">Glencoe Software</a>. Discover our tools on <a href="https://fairsharing.org/collection/OME" target="_blank">FAIRSharing</a>.</p> </div> <hr class="invisible"> <div class="row"> <div class="medium-1 columns"><i class="icon-fa-red fa fa-users fa-2x"></i></div> <div class="medium-3 columns"> <h4>The OME Teams</h4> <p>OME developers are based in universities and research institutes around the world.</p> <a href="/teams/" class="button small hollow">Meet the Teams</a> </div> <hr class="whitespace show-for-small-only"> <div class="medium-1 columns"><i class="icon-fa-blue fa fa-gift fa-2x"></i></div> <div class="medium-3 columns"> <h4>Contributors</h4> <p>We receive direct contribution to the OME software from groups and individuals.</p> <a href="/contributors/" class="button small hollow">See the List</a> </div> <hr class="whitespace show-for-small-only"> <div class="medium-1 columns"><i class="icon-fa-green fa fa-handshake fa-2x"></i></div> <div class="medium-3 columns"> <h4>Commercial Partners</h4> <p>We collaborate with commercial imaging hardware and software manufacturers on their projects.</p> <a href="/commercial-partners/" class="button small hollow">Get a Commercial License</a> </div> </div>   <hr class="whitespace"> <div id="goals" class="row column text-center"> <h2>Project Goals</h2> <p class="subheader medium-8 medium-offset-2">OME seeks to build specifications and software that allow scientists open, flexible, scalable and performant access to their imaging data.</p> </div> <hr> <div class="row column"> <p>OME is committed to building and releasing high quality, open source, well-supported software for the scientific imaging community. Our tools should work regardless of location, processing environment or data type.</p> <p>The project’s foundation is an open metadata specification, the OME Data Model. This defines and describes the metadata elements and relationships that the project uses and supports. Using this specification, we build and release:</p> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="medium-4 columns"> <h3><img src="/img/logos/omero-logomark.svg" alt="OMERO logo" class="logomark" /></h3> <h4>OMERO</h4> <p>An enterprise image data management platform that enables access, processing, sharing, analysis and where appropriate publication of scientific image data and metadata.</p> </div> <div class="medium-4 columns"> <h3><img src="/img/logos/bio-formats-logomark.svg" alt="Bio-Formats logo" class="logomark" /></h3> <h4>Bio-Formats</h4> <p>A software plug-in that reads >140 proprietary file formats and converts them to an open, OME-based model that any software can use.</p> </div> <div class="medium-4 columns"> <h3><img src="/img/logos/ome-files-logomark.svg" alt="OME Files logo" class="logomark" /></h3> <h4>OME-Files</h4> <p>OME-TIFF combines the popular, broadly supported TIFF format with an OME-based XML metadata header. OME-Zarr is a cloud-optimized format designed to address scalability issues with large imaging datasets.</p> </div> </div> <div class="row column"> <p>All of OME’s work and projects are funded by peer-reviewed grants are undertaken as collaborations with academic, industrial or commercial partners, so that the development of new tools and capabilities is always tied to real world, scientific use cases. Each individual partnership produces specific extensions to <a href="/contributors/">Bio-Formats</a> and <a href="/omero/">OMERO</a> and these are always distributed to the global OME community to maximize the return and benefit of work and investment.</p> </div>   <hr class="whitespace"> <div id="funding" class="row column"> <div class="small-12 columns text-center"> <h2>Funding</h2> <h5 class="subheader">OME is funded through several grants from UK and EU agencies. Our current work is funded by the following:</h5> </div> </div> <hr> <div class="row medium-up-1 large-up-1 text-center consortium-list"> <div class="large-expand columns"><a target="_blank" href="https://wellcome.org/grant-funding/people-and-projects/grants-awarded/the-image-data-resource-making-biological-imaging-data-fair">Wellcome Trust Biomedical Resource Grant</a> <span class="institution">(Ref: 212962/Z/18/Z)</span></div> <div class="large-expand columns"><a target="_blank" href="https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/projects/next-generation-data-formats-for-bioimaging-technology-developmen">Wellcome Trust Technology Development Grant</a> <span class="institution">(Ref: 221361/Z/20/Z)</span></div> <div class="large-expand columns"><a target="_blank" href="https://gow.bbsrc.ukri.org/grants/AwardDetails.aspx?FundingReference=BB/R015384/1">BBSRC BBR Research Grant</a> <span class="institution">(Ref: BB/R015384/1)</span></div> <div class="large-expand columns"><a target="_blank" href="https://data.4dnucleome.org/awards/1UM1HG011593-01/">NIH Common Fund</a> <span class="institution">(Ref: 1UM1HG011593-01)</span></div> <div class="large-expand columns"><a target="_blank" href="https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/824087">European Commission (“EOSC-Life”)</a> <span class="institution">(Ref: H2020-INFRAEOSC-2018-2)</span></div> </div>   <hr class="whitespace"> <div class="row column"> <div class="small-12 columns text-center"> <h2>Growing the OME Community</h2> <h5 class="subheader">The OME Community welcomes research groups undertaking development of OME tools or integrations to get more involved.</h5> </div> </div> <hr> <div id="partnerships" class="row small-up-2 medium-up-3"> <h5 class="text-center">Examples of OME’s resources are used in the following:</h5> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://knime.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">KNIME</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://fiji.sc/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Fiji</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://icy.bioimageanalysis.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Icy</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.cellprofiler.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">CellProfiler</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.bioimage.ucsb.edu/bisque"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Bisque</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://cbia.fi.muni.cz/software/i3d-library.html"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">i3dcore</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.bitplane.com/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Bitplane’s Imaris</div></div></a></div> <hr class="invisible"> <h5 class="text-center">Resources that publish image data with OMERO and Bio-Formats:</h5> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://cellimagelibrary.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">The Cell: An Image Library</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://lincs.hms.harvard.edu/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">LINCS</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://ssbd.qbic.riken.jp/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">SSBD Database</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Protein Data Bank Europe</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="http://movincell.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">MoveinCell</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ebi.ac.uk/empiar/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Electron Microscopy Public Image Archive (EMPIAR)</div></div></a></div> </div> <hr class="whitespace">   <hr class="whitespace"> <div id="standards" class="row column"> <div class="small-12 columns text-center"> <h2>Community Standards</h2> <h5 class="subheader">OME participates in community-driven standardization processes wherever possible.</h5> </div> </div> <hr> <a name="standards"/> <div id="standards" class="row small-up-2 medium-up-3"> <h5 class="text-center"> <a name="fairsharing"/> <a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/collection/OME"> OME-driven activities are collected in the <a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/collection/OME">OME Collection</a> as a part of the <a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/communities"/>Fairsharing</a> community: </h5> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section"> <img style="transform: scale(5); height: 1em" alt="Fairsharing logo" src="/img/logos/fairsharing.svg"> </div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/collection/OME"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">OME Collection</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/biodbcore-000778/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">Image Data Resource (IDR)</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/bsg-s000107/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">OME-XML Format</div></div></a></div> <div class="column"><a target="_blank" href="https://fairsharing.org/bsg-s000537/"><div class="card-consortium card"><div class="card-section">OME-TIFF Format</div></div></a></div> </div> <hr class="whitespace">  <hr class="whitespace">  <div class="text-center"> <a id="back-to-top" href="#top-of-page"><i class="fa fa-arrow-up"></i> back to top</a> </div>  <hr class="whitespace"> <div id="footer" class="callout large secondary"> <div class="row"> <div class="small-12 medium-4 columns"> <div class="medium-4"><a href="/index.html"><img class="footer-logo" src="/img/logos/ome-main-nav.svg" alt="OME logo" /></a></div> <p>© 2005-2025 University of Dundee & Open Microscopy Environment. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a></p> <p>OME source code is available under the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General public license</a> or more permissive open source licenses, or through commercial license from <a href="https://www.glencoesoftware.com" target="_blank">Glencoe Software Inc.</a><br/>OME, Bio-Formats, OMERO, IDR and their associated logos are trademarks of <a href="https://www.glencoesoftware.com" target="_blank">Glencoe Software Inc.</a>, which holds these marks to protect them on behalf of the OME community.</p> <p class="tiny-print" style="float:left;">[ <a href="/site-map/">Site Map</a> ]</p> <p class="tiny-print" style="float:right;">Version: 2025.03.28</p> </div> <div class="medium-2 columns"> <h6>Learn About Us</h6> <ul class="menu vertical"> <li><a href="/about/">Who We Are</a></li> <li><a href="/teams/">Our Team</a></li> <li><a href="/explore/">What We Can Do</a></li> <li><a href="/news/">What We’re Up To</a></li> <li><a href="/events/ome-community-meeting-2024/">OME 2024</a></li> <li class="hide-for-large-only"> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="medium-2 columns"> <h6>Try Our Products</h6> <ul class="menu vertical"> <li><a href="/omero/downloads/">OMERO <span class="badge">Download</span></a></li> <li><a href="/bio-formats/downloads">Bio-Formats <span class="badge">Download</span></a></li> <li><a href="/ome-files/downloads">OME Files <span class="badge">Download</span></a></li> <li class="hide-for-large-only"> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="medium-2 columns"> <h6>Knowledge Base</h6> <ul class="menu vertical"> <li><a href="/support/">Support</a></li> <li><a href="/docs/">Documentation</a></li> <li><a href="https://omero-guides.readthedocs.io/">User Guides</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.openmicroscopy.org/forums">Forum</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.openmicroscopy.org/security/advisories/">Security Advisories</a></li> <li class="hide-for-large-only"> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="medium-2 columns end"> <h6>OME Public</h6> <ul class="menu vertical"> <li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/openmicroscopy.org" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-brands fa-bluesky"></i> Bluesky</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/ome---open-microscopy-environment" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-fw fa-brands fa-linkedin-in"></i> LinkedIn</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/openmicroscopy" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-fw fa-brands fa-facebook-f"></i> Facebook</a></li>  <li><a href="/on-the-web/" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-globe"></i> On the Web</a></li> <li class="hide-for-large-only"> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <script src="/js/vendor/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script> <script src="/js/vendor/what-input.js"></script> <script src="/js/vendor/foundation.js"></script> <script src="/js/app.js"></script> <script> $(document).foundation(); try { // helper function to filter out empty paths (trailing slash) var omitEmpty = function(el) { return el.trim() !== ''}; // extract last path bit from url var paths = document.location.pathname.split('/').filter(omitEmpty); var path = paths[paths.length-1]; // helper function to find and set active option var setActiveNavOption = function(el) { var subPaths = el.href.split('/').filter(omitEmpty); var subPath = subPaths[subPaths.length-1]; if (subPath === path) { $(el).addClass('is-active'); return true } return false; } // check if we have a .header-subnav match? var hasSubMenu = false; $(".header-subnav li a").each(function(i, el) { var isMatch = setActiveNavOption(el); if (isMatch) { hasSubMenu = true; return false; } }); // find corresponding path bit for .menu-subnav option if (hasSubMenu && paths.length > 1) { var parentPath = paths[paths.length-2]; if (parentPath !== 'omero') path = parentPath; } // set .menu-subnav option $(".menu-subnav li a").each(function(i, el) { if (setActiveNavOption(el)) return false; }); } catch(ignored) {} </script> </body> </html>

CINXE.COM

About Us | Open Microscopy Environment (OME)