Meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the present competing renewal of our conference travel grant is to continue to facilitate student/postdoctoral fellow involvement (both current members and newer graduate students who are potential members) in the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) meetings. The mission of ISDP is to promote and encourage research on the development of behavior in all organisms, including humans, with special attention to the effects of biological factors operating at any level of organization. The epigenetic underpinnings of both normal and abnormal development are targets of study. We are requesting partial support of the travel expenses of 30 pre-doctoral and 20 postdoctoral students for attendance at the annual meetings of the ISDP over the next 5 years. The 2005 ISDP meeting will be held in Washington, DC, just prior to the Society for Neuroscience meeting. Our previous two meetings (2003 in New Orleans, LA and 2004 in Aix en Provence, France) have been enormously successful, due in no small part to the travel grants from NIH that provided partial support for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to travel to these meetings. Since the 1999 meeting, we have provided partial travel support for 40 or more students/postdoctoral fellows. Student attendance at ISDP meetings has grown steadily in the past 5 years. In addition, this funding enabled us to begin a new tradition at ISDP; travel award winners were invited to present select data in a "single slide" 5-min talk. Reactions to these presentations were overwhelmingly enthusiastic from both students and senior scientists. Students and postdoctoral fellows are the lifeblood of our society. It is critical in a small society such as ours to foster a high level of student participation. Indeed, many of the senior members of ISDP first became involved in the Society as students. Many gave their first research presentation at an ISDP meeting. Student travel support remains a critical issue for our society, given the limited nature of travel funds available. Continuation of travel support from NIH will have a major impact on our ability to bring students and postdoctoral fellows to this meeting. Furthermore, support for student travel will enable us to use the limited funds in the ISDP account in ways that will increase the impact of such a grant even further. For example, we are able to provide partial travel support to bring foreign graduate students to meetings and facilitate interactions with US members. The present proposal requests 5 years of support, to continue to provide funds for partial support of travel for student and postdoctoral fellows to the ISDP annual meetings. Obtaining multiple year support will encourage a culture of attendance at the ISDP meetings among graduate students at various universities, which will prolong the impact of the grant long after the period of support requested.