FASEB and NIGMS Host Meeting for Program Directors

Friday, July 19, 2019
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) 2019 Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity (TWD) Program Directors’ Meeting, organized through a cooperative agreement with FASEB, will take place July 30-August 2 in Rockville, Maryland. This biennial meeting will bring together a community of over 450 educators and NIGMS trainers dedicated to developing a diverse pool of scientists who have the skills to successfully transition into careers in the biomedical research workforce.

The meeting will provide members of the NIGMS training community with opportunities to:

• Network – establish new connections and strengthen existing relationships to enhance training, mentoring, diversity, and professional development
• Exchange information, ideas, and innovations – share outcomes, tools, strategies, and effective practices
• Communicate – share training challenges and opportunities, and learn about current NIH/NIGMS policies and priorities

This year, principal investigators and program directors will present more than 100 posters highlighting the diversity of TWD student and predoctoral training and research education programs, including the T32 administrative supplements; and will complement the formal talks by providing an interactive forum for authors to discuss their NIGMS-funded program best practices, progress, and outcomes. 

Plenary sessions, keynote talks, and concurrent panel sessions will describe innovative approaches for cultivating a diverse pool of well-trained scientists and will focus on skills; mentoring and career development; the importance of scientific rigor and reproducibility; the value of diverse, equitable, inclusive, and supportive training environments; curricular and institutional change; program evaluation and assessment; lab safety; data science training; and more.

This is the fifth TWD Program Directors’ Meeting since the creation of the NIGMS Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity Division in 2011.  “In my opinion, the 2019 TWD meeting program is the most diverse, inclusive, and engaging in comparison to prior years’ meetings.  The list of accomplished and dynamic speakers and session topics guarantee that this will be a successful experience for the participants”, said Jacquie Roberts, Director of FASEB Office of Sponsored Programs, Diversity and Grants Administration, and Principal Investigator/Co-organizer of the NIGMS 2019 TWD Program Directors’ Meeting.

More information about the NIGMS 2019 TWD Program Directors’ Meeting can be found at http://twdprograms.org.

Funding for this meeting was made possible (in part) by T36GM008637-21S1 and U13GM133156-01 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the NIH; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The content of this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.