Perinatal Research Society Annual Meeting

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Perinatal Research Society (PRS) consists of pediatricians, obstetricians, and basic scientists who are the nation's leaders in all aspects of perinatal research and have a wealth of experience in NIH funding and trainee mentoring. The overall purpose of the PRS annual meeting is twofold, 1) to provide productive interchange between scientists of different disciplines sharing a common research interest in perinatal biology, and 2) to encourage development and collaboration opportunities for Young Investigators (YI's) to build careers in perinatal research. The PRS annual meeting provides many important career development opportunities through it design. The YI program begins at a premeeting Workshop in which intensive one-on-one mentoring/teaching by senior PRS members leads to tangible progress in the YIs developing and expressing their own research ideas. However, it is in the Main Meeting that they become integrated with the society membership as a whole. The program itself presents the latest advances in the field but also provides the opportunity for some YI's to present their research ideas. Beyond the speaker program all YI's are constantly encouraged to network with the many established and indeed prominent researchers who have excelled at building successful careers. The intentional programmatic acknowledgement of and presentations by YI's within the Main Meeting, combined with many informal and formal interaction opportunities in a relaxed retreat-like setting contributes to YI professional development and creates opportunities to develop individual collaborations and mentoring relationships with senior colleagues. This is critical to future research career success. We seek funding to support a lectureship as part of the Main Meeting program, but also predominantly to support Young Investigators (YI) attendance and participation in the Main Meeting. The need for this kind of opportunity for early career development is significant because of the times in which we live. Many YI's are giving up their goal of a career in perinatal research. We believe this combined approach or premeeting Workshop and then Main Meeting attendance and further mentoring is unique, and we will track outcomes norms over the next five years to see if they exceed NIH norms.