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Second AI4Life Open Call: 
Announcement of selected projects

by Joran Deschamps, Florian Jug & Beatriz Serrano-Solano

The second AI4Life open call received 51 applications from diverse scientific disciplines (see this online report for more details).

In contrast to our first open call, the selection procedure has slightly evolved. We are now distinguishing two phases, a consultancy phase, and a project execution phase. The motivation for this evolution stemmed from the observation that we can maximize the value of our service to the scientific community by providing feedback (e.g. feasibility, existing tools, approaches we would take) to a larger number of projects, and then taking on a small number of projects for more in-depth support (similar to last year’s first open call) based on informed opinions of experts regarding the readiness of the project.

The selection of projects, for both phases, was conducted by an international group of project reviewers, similar to the procedure of last year.

Projects selected for Phase 1: Project Consultation

  1. Automated image analysis for mouse embryos phenotyping (#1)
  2. Analysis of necrotic cores in diabetes (#3)
  3. Bring isotropy to Volume EM (#7)
  4. Automated species annotation in turbid waters (#11)
  5. Segmenting dynamic 3D cell shape in crowded epithelia (#12)
  6. Optimizing calcium image acquisition with machine learning denoising algorithms (#13)
  7. Diatom symbioses at planetary scale (#14)
  8. Automated segmentation of actin filaments in intact cells (#21)
  9. Automated and Integrated Tunneling Nanotube (TNT) Detection and Counting (#22)
  10. Enhancing the effective resolution of intravital microscopy with digital expansion microscopy (#23)
  11. Automated myelin segmentation (#24)
  12. Ultrastructural protein mapping through Correlation of Light and Electron Microscopy (#26)
  13. The speed of life in trees – linking wood anatomy with lifespan and respiration (#28)
  14. Systematic quantitative characterization of mechanisms controlling spindle and nuclear scaling in tissue (#29)
  15. CKit- Mast Cell Tumor (#30)
  16. Novel regulators of chromatin response to DNA damage (#32)
  17. Scaling of actin networks with cell size (#34)
  18. NeuroScan – A 3D human motor neuron disease platform for high throughput drug screening  (#38)
  19. Cell Fate of Pax7-tdtomato transplanted cells in immune dysregulation during aging (#46)
  20. Correlating bacteria images from STORM and AFM microscopies in a combined analysis using registration methods (#51)

As the titles suggest, consulted projects covered a wide range of disciplines and topics. Consultation sessions were typically conducted with between two to four AI4Life experts and consisted of a one-hour discussion during which the experts could ask additional questions regarding the project and then provide opinions regarding the feasibility of the projects. Along with this kind of “reality check”, the experts also aimed at giving tangible advice on existing tools and methods that might help the consulted researchers in improving their workflows and achieving the desired analysis results.

Projects selected for Phase 2: Deep Learning project support

With the additional information from the consultancy phase at hand, the group of AI4Life experts came together and discussed the most promising projects to be taken on in phase 2 (deep-learning support). This decision was guided by a combination of project feasibility, readiness, re-usability by the community, and how well each project fits within the experiences and capabilities of the AI4Life team itself. These considerations were combined with the intention to maximize the utility and impact on the bioimage analysis community of this Open Call.

  1. Automated species annotation in turbid waters (#11*)
  2. Optimizing calcium image acquisition with machine learning denoising algorithms (#13)
  3. Diatom symbioses at planetary scale (#14*)
  4. Automated segmentation of actin filaments in intact cells (#21)
  5. Enhancing the effective resolution of intravital microscopy with digital expansion microscopy (#23)
  6. Ultrastructural protein mapping through Correlation of Light and Electron Microscopy (#26)
  7. NeuroScan – A 3D human motor neuron disease platform for high throughput drug screening (#38)
(*) Project goals were readjusted after consultancy between applicants and the AI4Life team.

Details about the reviewing procedure

Reviewing procedure

After assembling a panel of 17 international reviewers, we distributed anonymized projects among them. All personal and institutional information was removed, only leaving project-relevant data to be reviewed (including a short presentation and data examples). We aimed at receiving 3 independent reviews per project, requiring each reviewer to judge 9 projects in total.

Here is the list of questions we asked our reviewers via an electronic form:

  1. Please rank the following statements from 1 (Likely not) to 5 (Likely):
    1. The project has well-defined goals (and these goals are the correct ones).
    2. The proposed project will benefit from Deep Learning methods/approaches/tools.
    3. A complete solution will be purely deep learning (no intensive classical routine necessary).
    4. The project requires developing new approaches or tools.
    5. Approaches/scripts/models developed to solve this project will likely be reusable for other, similar projects.
    6. The project, once completed, will be useful for a broader scientific user base.
    7. The project’s current analysis pipeline can easily be improved.
    8. The project cannot be solved by simply offering one or two consultations to the users.
    9. The project seems feasible in a few months (of part time work).
    10. The project, once completed, will be interesting to computational researchers (e.g. within a public challenge).
    11. The applicants will have no problem sharing their data publicly.
  2. What are the key sub-tasks the project needs us to improve?
  3. How long would you expect it to take (in person/days) to generate sufficient training data (if applicable)?
  4. Once there is enough training data available, what workload do you anticipate in developing a viable solution for the proposed project and why?
  5. What is your estimated minimum number of days for successfully working on this project?
  6. What is your estimated maximum number of days for successfully working on this project?
  7. Do suitable tools for solving this task exist? What would you use?
  8. On a scale from 1 to 10, how enthusiastic are you about this project?
  9. Would this project qualify as an AI4Life project?
  10. Would this project qualify for Consultation?
 Scoring projects according to reviewer verdicts

We first aggregated all reviews per project by averaging numerical values and concatenating textual evaluations. We then computed two different aggregated scores: consultation and support based on the reviewer evaluations:

Consultation score
  • [0.8] Solvable in 1-2 consultation sessions (= 5 – “Not solvable”)1
  • [0.2] Solution likely reusable
Support score
  • [0.2] Interesting for the computational community
    • [0.1] Enthusiasm2
    • [0.1] Interesting for challenge
  • [0.8] Quality & Feasibility
    • [0.2] Quality of the application
      • [0.1] Well-defined project
      • [0.1] Pipeline can be easily improved
      • Persons/day to generate training data (tiebreaker
    • [0.2] DL suitable
      • [0.15] DL applies
      • [0.05] only Deep Learning and not classical image analysis
    • [0.2] Impact
      • [0.1] Impactful in the broader community
      • [0.1] Solution likely reusable
      • Workload to find a solution with training data (tiebreaker
    • [0.2] Time effort
      • [0.1] Feasible in a few months
      • [0.05] Min days3
      • [0.05] Max days
1 “Solution likely reusable” calculated from “Not solvable in 1-2 consultations” (scale inversion)
2 Enthusiasm rescaled from 0-10 to 0-5
3 Min and Max days rescaled to linearly decrease from an optimum of 60 days (score = 5)
 Consultation phase
  1. After ranking the projects, we decided on a scoring threshold for both consultation and project scores so that we could provide about 20 hours of consultations. We invited all applicants whose project scored either >3 on the consultation score (11 projects) or >3.8 on the project score (12 projects), to a 1h consultation with a panel of typically two to four suitable experts. Two projects declined the invitation, and one project scored high on both scores, resulting in 20 consultations.
  2. After each consultation, the experts drafted a summary of their suggestions to the scientists, and their opinion regarding the feasibility and readiness of the project, in particular with respect to the AI4Life Open Call time frame.
  3. A second consultation was offered to a subset of the projects (7). While this was not initially planned, we decided that those projects would benefit from additional feedback and guidance within the time frame of a single additional consultancy session.

Final decisions were made during a general assembly of reviewers and AI4Life Experts who would later take on the selected projects. The decisions suggested during this meeting were brought to the Open Call Selection Committee, which checked the soundness of all decisions and unanimously accepted the phase 2 project selections.

Who was involved in the process?

And now? What’s next?

The applicants whose projects were selected are now being contacted by the AI4Life team. All other projects that expressed interest in being part of the AI4Life Bartering Corner will be contacted to prepare publication on the AI4Life website, so computational experts can reach out to the scientists behind any of these projects and start a collaboration. 

If you did not have the chance to apply to the second Open Call, there will be a third and last call at the end of 2024. Subscribe to our newsletter, and you will be informed about the opening of the next call!

If you need help quicker, we recommend Euro-BioImaging’s web portal, where you can access a network of experts in the field of image analysis. Please note that this service may involve associated costs, but access funds for certain research topics are available through some initiatives. We and Euro-Bioimaging will be happy to help you find suitable opportunities!