Office of Fellowship Training

National Institute Of Mental Health

Investigators

Abstract

In fiscal year 2022 (FY22) the Office of Fellowship Training (OFT) processed 706 personnel cases for trainees and provided training to IRP administrative staff on the processing of trainee personnel cases. The OFT provided faculty with 18 Predoc IRTA slots with travel and tuition, and 24 diversity and inclusion slots for Postbac IRTAs. The OFT provided monthly orientations to trainees. The OFT web content received an average of 4,751 unique page views each month from October 2021 to July 2022. The OFT LinkedIn Group grew to 330 members and career and professional development content is posted weekly. The OFT provides career and professional development guidance and solicits trainee feedback during and upon completion of their time at NIMH. The OFT Steering Committee met in FY22 to provide input for development of an IRP Postbac cohort program for individuals with a demonstrated commitment to diversity. Symposia/Seminar Series In FY22, the OFT and Fellows Committee organized the 24th Annual NIMH IRP Fellows Scientific Training Day as a hybrid meeting. The event will be held on September 29, 2022 with more than 200 attendees expected to participate in-person/virtually depending on COVID community risk levels on the 29th. The Fellows Committee with the OFT organized the monthly Fellows Afternoon Neuroscience Seminar Series (FANS) and the Fellows Invited Lecture Series (FILS). FILS speakers have included Oliver Howes, Cris Niell and Colleen McClung. The OFT organized the 2021/2022 IRP Investigator Seminar Series and the NIMH IRP Women Scientists Discussion Series. The Women Scientists Discussion Series included a new NIMH IRP interview series entitled Growing up in Science where faculty share details around their careers, including challenges encountered along the way. Susan G. Amara, Arash Afraz and Yogita Chudasama will be interviewed by Silvia Lopez-Guzman in this year's series. Training OFT organized the IRP Grantsmanship Workshop with Grant Writing Mentors, LLC. Training was provided in three phases, and in FY22 Phase I provided training in Grantsmanship to 75 trainees from NIMH, and 9 other institutes. Eleven trainees from 3 ICs participated in Phases II and III of the workshop. This year, NIMH Trainees submitted grant proposals for K99, K22, Postdoctoral Research Associate Training (PRAT) Grant and private funding including National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). The OFT offered seminars for Postdocs on career award mechanisms (K-Awards), PRAT Program application, and NSF funding mechanisms. To satisfy the NIH mandate to provide all NIH IRP scientific staff with training in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), the OFT held 11 Ethics for Lunch discussions on Science Under Pressure from October 2021 through December 2021. One hundred percent of NIMH IRP Scientific staff satisfied their research ethics training requirement in FY22. In FY22 Science Communication Seminars and Workshops including the Three Minute Talk (TmT) coaching and competition. Thirty trainees participated in the TmT coaching and NIMH IRP competition, 15 finalists will compete at the Training Day. Negotiation Skills, Interview Skills for Postdocs, and Chalk Talk Workshops were offered in FY22. Postbac-specific training opportunities in FY 22 included a Statistics Course, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Application Workshop, an Interview Skills Workshop, a Clinical Psychology PhD Program Application Workshop, a Mental Health Careers Panel and a Pre-Med Application Workshop. Sessions added for Postbacs in FY22 include peer mentoring sessions for those following the clinical psychology and medical school paths, an NIMH funding session for graduate and medical students, a panel discussion with psychology program directors, and a discussion with trainees about how grad/med school applicants can deal with the effect of the pandemic on their NIMH training experience. OFT Administered Programs In FY22, the OFT administered and directed the University College London-NIMH Joint Doctoral Training Program in Neuroscience and the NIH-Karolinska Institutet (NIH-KI) Program for Graduate Training in the Neurosciences. In FY22 quarterly virtual check-in sessions with students were held. The OFT participated in the selection of 2022 Outstanding Resident Award Program (ORAP) recipients and will provide support for a virtual ORAP meeting to be held in October 2022. OFT Recruitment of Trainees The OFT Team participated in virtual trainee recruiting efforts through the NIH OITE Graduate Program Fair and at annual meetings for the Society of Neuroscience and ABRCMS and in-person at SOBP Annual Meeting in May 2022. In FY22 the OFT initiated a plan to reach out to HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions, and Neuroscience departments and programs across the country to hold virtual information sessions to share research opportunities available at NIMH/NIH. Quarterly drop-in information sessions have been held virtually on Zoom and advertised publicly using the NIMH Twitter and LinkedIn feeds. COVID 19 Effects on OFT Training Program in FY22 All OFT-sponsored trainings and orientations were adapted for virtual delivery as of April 2020 and have continued to be virtual through most of FY22. OFT provides bimonthly Trainee Check-In and Update sessions. The NIH Take Your Child to Work Day was held virtually in April 2022. The NIH Summer Internship Program, held virtually in FY21, was offered in a hybrid format in FY22. Seventeen NIMH trainees participated in the Summer Program in-person and the remaining 28 trainees participated virtually. NIMH Summer Programming was virtual and included a Summer at Home Series, RCR Training, Summer Journal Club, Summer Meet & Greet and the OITE Summer Poster sessions. The 13th Annual Julius Axelrod Symposium was virtual in April 2022 to honor David Ginty, the 2021 SfN Axelrod Prize recipient. The second NIH OSNAP Award Symposium was virtual in FY22 to recognize 2021 OSNAP awardees. The 2022 cohort of 27 OSNAP awardees was selected from 155 nominations. Every effort is being made to consider programming in a hybrid format moving forward in FY22 and FY23. The 2022 TmT primary competition was held in June in a hybrid format with competitors in-person and audience virtual. A Science as Art exhibit with artists was held August 22 in-person. Overall, OFT programming continues to be affected by the pandemic and hybrid or in-person events must be rescheduled or moved to virtual when COVID community risk levels at NIH are at HIGH.