Office of Research Training and Development

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Abstract

ORTD serves fellows in Maryland and Montana, including Postdoctoral, Visiting and Clinical Fellows; Medical Students; Postbacs; Graduate Students; and Summer Interns. Katie Soucy, M.S., is the Training Director, and the office has a staff of six. ORTD creates and conducts programs, seminars, and workshops, along with providing individual support for career preparation, communication, and professional development. Outreach and recruitment are key endeavors, with the goal to recruit highly skilled, competitive candidates for training positions. To fulfill the ORTD mission and increase awareness of NIAID training opportunities, ORTD has leveraged Handshake, a platform highly utilized by US colleges and universities, to reach prospective fellows who are passionate about biomedical research careers and share the unique training opportunities available in NIAID. ORTD curates, secures, and analyzes the data that informs the management and operation of the NIAID fellowship programs, supporting over 600 fellows conducting basic, clinical, and translational research in alignment with the NIH mission. ORTD utilizes these data to inform the programming, support, and resources provided for the fellows in NIAID, this includes programs and support for fellows pursuing careers in biomedical, clinical, biosafety, biosecurity, and other related fields. Through communication with NIAID alumni, ORTD has been able to gather next and future step data following NIAID fellowships and establish a pipeline for networking between current fellows and NIAID alumni. ORTD develops and implements many programs and events annually for all training levels: The 2024 Annual Fellows Workshop that took place on December 11 and 12, was hosted on the NIH Bethesda Main Campus; the two-day workshop included research poster sessions on Day 1 and scientific career/skills sessions and Networking on Day 2. The career/skills sessions included grant writing, research communication, and leveraging bibliometrics to communicate research impact. The 19th Annual Fellows Workshop will be held on December 2, 2025. The 2025 Workshop will feature fellow scientific talks, both long-form (30 minutes) and short-form (10 minutes) to give fellows the opportunity to share their research. There will also be two professional development sessions focusing on the Fundamentals of AI and Polishing Your Professional Profile. Due to a hiring freeze on fellows in Spring 2025, the NIH cancelled the NIH Summer Internship Program for Summer 2025 with plans to relaunch in 2026. Postbacs participated in the 2025 NIH Postbac Poster Day, hosted by OITE – approximately 60% of NIAID Postbacs shared their research during this event and 30 won awards for their presentations. ORTD continued working with NIAID Clinical Fellows on the growing Clinical Case Review Series; this series, hosted monthly, is led by a Clinical Fellow who selects the case and prepares the discussion for each session. With 70% of NIAID fellows planning to pursue a clinical path (MD, MD/PhD, etc.) following their postbac, these sessions provide a unique opportunity for postbacs to get an introduction to clinical reasoning which involves reviewing an illness script and determining an appropriate differential diagnosis and, potentially, a therapeutic plan that fits the needs of the patient and current guidelines. In recognition of the critical role that communication plays in science and the importance of communicating effectively with different audiences, ORTD hosted a series of communication workshops and events focused on both written and verbal communication. 2025 saw an increase in engagement for the Annual NIAID Three-minute-Talk (TmT) Competition, an opportunity to practice short-form talks to a broad audience. A communication specialist provided expertise on developing and presenting Job and Chalk Talks for NIAID Postdocs and Predocs as they prepare to apply for independent scientific research positions. Additional communication workshops for all training levels focused on practicing interview skills and improving the writing process. In 2025, there were also increased opportunities for fellows to present to their peers and other members of the NIAID community through the NIAID Fellows Research Spotlight Series; these research spotlights invite fellows (postdocs, predocs, and postbacs) to give a 10-minute talk on their research with questions from the audience. ORTD continues to host the Grant Writing Training and Mentoring Program which allows fellows the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive series of workshops and receive individual assistance on grant writing. Grant Writing skill development is critical as they seek independent research careers. Postdocs and Predocs are also provided with a series of workshops on how to write more efficiently and make their writing easier for a general audience to understand. A series of self-paced video modules are also available on planning and writing the different elements of a faculty job application for those pursuing a career in academia. Ethics training plays an important role in the development of early career scientists and ORTD manages and facilitates ethics training programs in alignment with NIH requirements. All NIAID fellows are required to complete multiple courses on the topic of responsible conduct of research (RCR), which provides best practices for ethical conduct of research. In its tenth year, the Rocky-Beth Fellowship Program continued to enhance collaboration between scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana and those in Maryland. This year, one new postdoctoral fellow was welcomed to the cohort of fellows who have the unique opportunity to leverage the expertise of two labs (one in RML, the other in Maryland) on a collaborative research project.