Stress and conflict management in core facilities—News from an imaging survey

While conflict management is a well-known challenge for people working in the service sector, this topic remains largely unexplored in scientific imaging core facilities, despite frequent interactions with diverse users in environments with complex service demands. To address this gap, we conducted a survey to assess staff experiences, challenges, and the availability of institutional support. The 38-question survey, completed anonymously, covered three areas: (1) respondent background; (2) assessment of stress in core facilities and coping mechanisms and stress management resources; and (3) work environment challenges such as user interactions and overall work atmosphere. The results highlight the need for more awareness, targeted training, and organisational strategies to improve staff well-being and foster a collaborative work culture. By raising awareness and providing actionable insights, we aim to inform best practices for conflict de-escalation and, when necessary, conflict management in research infrastructure settings. While exemplified with scientific imaging facilities, we believe our survey results are easily transferable to other scientific cores and infrastructures with similar service and user interactions. In addition, the dataset is available to other researchers on figshare. Information concerning the data records, usage notes, code availability, and technical validation is presented.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Microscopy
Published
2026-04-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jmi.70102
Primary Topic
Radiology practices and education
Type
article
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article

Stress and conflict management in core facilities—News from an imaging survey

Audrey Salles, Nathalie Aulner, Adeline Mallet, Pablo Hernández-Varas et al.
Journal of Microscopy
Radiology practices and education
article

Stress and conflict management in core facilities—News from an imaging survey

Audrey Salles, Nathalie Aulner, Adeline Mallet, Pablo Hernández-Varas, Jan Peychl, Sebastian T. Bundschuh, Aurélien Dauphin, Maia Brunstein, R. Chaabouni, Karin Aumayr, Agnes Uhereczky, Jean‐Marc Verbavatz, Manuel Gunkel, Eef Parthoens, Thomas Heuser, Sebastian Munck, Nadia Halidi, Rachel Santarella-Mellwig, Chiara Rossi, Erin M Tranfield, Martin Fritsch
article en

Abstract

While conflict management is a well-known challenge for people working in the service sector, this topic remains largely unexplored in scientific imaging core facilities, despite frequent interactions with diverse users in environments with complex service demands. To address this gap, we conducted a survey to assess staff experiences, challenges, and the availability of institutional support. The 38-question survey, completed anonymously, covered three areas: (1) respondent background; (2) assessment of stress in core facilities and coping mechanisms and stress management resources; and (3) work environment challenges such as user interactions and overall work atmosphere. The results highlight the need for more awareness, targeted training, and organisational strategies to improve staff well-being and foster a collaborative work culture. By raising awareness and providing actionable insights, we aim to inform best practices for conflict de-escalation and, when necessary, conflict management in research infrastructure settings. While exemplified with scientific imaging facilities, we believe our survey results are easily transferable to other scientific cores and infrastructures with similar service and user interactions. In addition, the dataset is available to other researchers on figshare. Information concerning the data records, usage notes, code availability, and technical validation is presented.

Journal of Microscopy
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), European Molecular Biology Organization (DE), Allen Institute for Brain Science (US), Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (AT), Inserm (FR), Institut Pasteur (FR), Université Paris Cité (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), Université Sorbonne Paris Nord (FR), VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology (BE), Institut Jacques Monod (FR), VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology (BE), Centre for Genomic Regulation (ES), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (DE), VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research (BE), Vienna Biocenter (AT), VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology (BE), VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research (BE), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (DE), Institut Curie (FR)
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