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 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 with the assistance of 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, fellow stipends increase, and affinity group seminar series for invited speakers. Among the office's accomplishments from the past year, we are actively developing our collaboration with Howard University for research, training and mentoring opportunities. For the spring 2023 academic semester, we welcomed our third cohort of 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 first cohort of four undergraduates, who started the program in 2020, completed their senior thesis projects and graduated in May 2023. Mentees also had the opportunity to participate in the 2023 NIH Summer Internship Program. Our TmT (Three-minute Talks) competition, now in its ninth year, was held in conjunction with 10 other institutes: NCATS, NIAMS, NIDCR, NHGRI, NEI, NIDDK, NIDCD, NLM, NIEHS, and NIAID. Jong Park, postdoctoral IRTA fellow in Dr. Brant Weinsteins laboratory, Section on Vertebrate Organogenesis, finished first, overall, in the NIH-wide competition in June. 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. An Individual Development Plan and Annual Progress Report system for all NICHD postbac fellows is in the final stages of development, planning for implementation in FY24. In addition, a new online fellows exit survey has been developed and was implemented in summer 2022. This exit survey aims to obtain a comprehensive view of trainees experiences at NICHD and to 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 16th NICHD Division of Intramural Research Mentor of the Year awards will be announced at the September 26th NICHD DIPHR & DIR Joint Scientific Retreat. For NICHD, 11 FARE awards were made for the FY2024 competition. In addition to the Fellows Intramural Grants Supplement (FIGS) continuing to recognize and stimulate grant applications among fellows, we launched the seventh cycle of our competitive internal funding opportunity for NICHD postdoctoral and clinical fellows, the 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. Five intramural fellows received the award in FY23. 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. NICHD welcomed over 60 students at the high school, college and graduate/professional school level for a robust 2023 Summer Internship Program. This cohort including 15 students who participated in the Virtual Summer Opportunities to Advance Science, a new collaboration between the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education, NICHD and NCATS. The Fellows Recruitment Incentive Award (FRIA) continues to support investigators who recruit postdocs from populations traditionally underrepresented in science. The 2023 award went to Dr. Sarah Sheppard, Unit on Vascular Malformations, for recruitment of postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Luciana Daniela Garlisi Torales. 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 13th year. Our alumni group includes over 30 individuals who have gone on to pursue training in medicine, biomedical research, occupational therapy, and public health. Three new postbaccalaureate fellows joined the program in 2023. Lastly, the NICHD Connection monthly newsletter continues its focus on mentoring, careers, and academic support programs for young scientists, publishing its 159th issue in August 2023 and reaching all members of the intramural division and our alumni.