NICHD Office of Education

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development

Investigators

Abstract

The Office of Education delivers workshops, programs, and individualized opportunities to a population averaging 300 trainees, including postdoctoral IRTA, visiting, and research fellows; clinical fellows and medical students; graduate students; postbaccalaureate fellows; and summer interns. The activities include: scientific presentation skills workshops, job interviewing, writing and editorial services for professional school and job applications, grantsmanship workshops, academic and non-academic career seminars and webinars, one-on-one career counseling, clinical shadowing, teaching opportunities through our annual NICHD Postbac Seminar Series, and lab management programs. We are also actively working on a collaboration with Howard University for research, teaching, and mentoring opportunities. An annual retreat for fellows and graduate students is held each spring to address scientific development and careers, which includes a keynote address, fellows presentations, career round table discussions led by NICHD alumni, and a poster presentation by each attendee. The program is developed and run by a fellow-student steering committee. We also work collaboratively with various office and scientific groups within DIR to achieve training goals and policy development, such as tenure track mentoring and affinity group seminar series for invited speakers. Among the office's accomplishments from the past year, Dr. Erin Walsh took on the role of office Director. We are actively developing our collaboration with Howard University for research, training and mentoring opportunities. For the spring 2021 academic semester, we welcomed (virtually) a cohort of four undergraduate student mentees from the College of Arts and Sciences into the Biology Secondary Mentors Program. Each student was paired with an NICHD investigator in the DIR, with whom they will work closely towards developing and executing a research project from their sophomore through their senior years of college. Our second cohort of mentor-mentee pairs will be established for spring 2022. Also in spring 2021, Office of Education Director of Communications and Outreach, Dr. Triesta Fowler, co-led a new seminar series, Career Planning and Professional Development: Exploring the MD, PhD, and MD-PhD Paths, to undergraduates in the Howard University Department of Biology to provide medical and research career exploration, as well as guidance on how to proceed with medical and graduate school admissions processes. Our TmT (Three-minute Talks) competition, now in its seventh year, was held in conjunction with nine other institutes: NCATS, NIDCR, NIAMS, NHGRI, NEI, NIDDK, NINR, NIDCD, and NIAID. Dr. Susanna Mitro in the Epidemiology Branch in the Division of Intramural Population Health Research received the second-place award. Dr. Jennifer Panlilio in the Section on Behavioral Neurogenetics was also an NICHD finalist in this years competition. The office developed an online Annual Progress Review (APR) for fellows, launched in 2016, to track scientific and career development and progress. As part of investigators' assessments of mentoring, these fellow APR reports are also provided for the BSC site visits. In addition, a new online fellows exit survey has been developed and will be released soon for our trainee population. This exit survey aims to obtain a comprehensive view of trainees experiences at NICHD, stay connected with the trainees and learn of their career moves, as well as to help us improve our training program. The database of NICHD alumni from 2008 to the present continues to be updated, and we have compiled a valuable list of organizations that accepts grant applications from NIH intramural fellows, both NIH and non-NIH funding mechanisms. The 14th NICHD Division of Intramural Research Mentor of the Year awards will be announced at the October 27, 2021 virtual NICHD DIPHR & DIR Joint Scientific Retreat. For NICHD, 15 FARE awards were made for the FY2022 competition. In addition to the Fellows Intramural Grants Supplement (FIGS) continuing to recognize and stimulate grant applications among fellows, we launched the fifth cycle for our competitive internal funding opportunity for NICHD postdoctoral and clinical fellows, our Intramural Research Fellowships (IRFs). The ultimate goal of this opportunity is to promote grant writing and enhance awareness of the various components of the NIH grant application and submission process. Our institute has established an exchange program with Inserm, the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (France), which provides a unique opportunity for US and French scientists to obtain postdoctoral training with French and US mentors, respectively, and 2nd and 3rd year medical students from the Santa Casa de So Paulo School of Medical Sciences (Brazil) train with NICHD investigators as well for the Future Researchers Program. Since 2016, up to three students on an annual basis completed a research rotation with NICHD. After the cancellation of the 2020 NIH Summer Internship Program due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NICHD welcomedvirtually52 summer interns for the 2021 program. Interns completed remote research projects using the NIH Virtual Desktop, developed by the NIH Center for Information Technology and the Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE), while also participating in the OITE online summer curriculum and numerous online training and professional development programs led by the OITE; NIH investigators, staff scientists and postdocs; and IC training directors and summer coordinators. The Fellows Recruitment Incentive Award (FRIA) continues to support investigators who recruit postdocs from populations traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. The 2021 award went to Dr. Todd Macfarlan, Section on Mammalian Epigenome Reprogramming, for recruitment of postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Mohammed Mohammed. The NICHD Developing Talent Scholars program, which focuses on providing trainees with a customized academic and professional development plan that includes exposure to intramural activities and resources as well as supporting their career advancement, is now in its 11th year. Our alumni group includes 25 individuals who have gone on to pursue training in medicine, biomedical research, occupational therapy, and public health. Two new postbaccalaureate fellows joined the program in 2021. Lastly, the NICHD Connection monthly newsletter continues its focus on mentoring, careers, and academic support programs for young scientists, publishing its 136th issue in September 2021 and reaching all members of the intramural division and our alumni.