NICHD Office of Education

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The Office of Education delivers workshops, programs, and individualized opportunities to a population averaging 250 trainees, including postdoctoral, visiting, and research fellows; clinical fellows and medical students; graduate students; and postbaccalaureate fellows, as well as summer trainees. The activities include, typically: public speaking workshops, job interviewing, writing and editorial services for professional school and job applications, grantsmanship workshops, research ethics training, academic and non-academic career seminars and webinars and one-on-one counseling, clinical shadowing, teaching opportunities through our annual NICHD postbac course and a training program with the University of Maryland, and lab management programs. An annual retreat for fellows and graduate students is held each spring to address scientific developments and careers, which includes a keynote address, fellow 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. Among the office's accomplishments from the past year, Dr. Erin Walsh took on a new role in the Office of Education as Associate Director. Our TmT (Three-minute Talks) competition, now in its sixth year, is held in conjunction with NIDCR, NIAMS, NHGRI, NCATS, and NEI. Dr. Mengying Li, mentored by Dr. Cuilin Zhang, received the second-place NIH-wide award. The office developed an online Annual Progress Review for fellows, launched in 2016, to track scientific and career development and progress. As part of investigators' assessments of mentoring, these fellow reports are also provided for the BSC site visits. 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. In September 2019, the NICHD Division of Intramural Research gave its 12th Mentor of the Year awards to Distinguished Investigator Alan Hinnebusch, Ph.D., in the investigator category; and postdoc Dr. Maria Queralt Martin, Ph.D., in the fellow category. For NICHD, 24 FARE awards were made for the 2020 competition. In addition to the Fellows Intramural Grants Supplement (FIGS) continuing to recognize and stimulate grant applications among fellows, we launched the third cycle for our competitive internal funding opportunity for NICHD postdoctoral and clinical fellows, our Intramural Research Fellowships (IRFs). Its ultimate goal is to promote grant writing and enhance awareness of various components for an NIH grant application. 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. The Fellows Recruitment Incentive Award (FRIA) continues to support investigators who recruit postdocs from populations traditionally underrepresented in science. The alumni of our NICHD Scholars program, in its ninth year, has expanded to 16 individuals; nine scholars are currently either of medical or graduate school and three are in medical resident education programs across the US. One of our alumni scholars has started his career as a PhD scientist in biomedical industry, currently working at Thermo Fisher Scientific, while three of them pursued a career in public health, plus four new postbacs have joined the program in 2019. The Scholars program focuses on "developing talent" and supporting trainees' academic and career advancement. Lastly, the NICHD Connection monthly newsletter continues its focus on mentoring, careers, and academic support programs for young scientists, publishing its 112th issue in September 2019 and reaching all members of the intramural division and our alumni.