Early-Career Participants at the 2nd International Conference on NeuroProsthetic Devices, February 27-28, 2010 in Beijing, China

1002676Pikov神经假体器械国际会议（ICNPD）将汇集各级国际研究人员到中国北京，讨论最新的研究成果，并在神经假体器械这一令人兴奋的新领域建立新的合作。会议将于2010年2月27日至28日举行，之前将对会议将讨论的问题进行为期六周的在线讨论。会议的主要支持是由中国两个顶级研究机构，北京大学和上海交通大学，以及国家自然科学基金委员会提供的。美国国家科学基金会的支持将扩大美国初级研究人员在会议上的参与，通过补贴他们的差旅费和他们在开放获取期刊Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics的会议专刊上发表短论文的出版费用。会议的主题将是将基础神经科学和工程研究转化为临床实践。美国和中国的研究人员有很多机会在开发和测试用于多种神经系统疾病的神经假体设备方面开展合作项目。在会议上将有多个讨论小组和海报会议，以刺激与会者的互动。重点将是确定可能的合作领域，并寻求启动这些合作的机制，而不仅仅是报告研究进展。在线资源将在会议结束时创建，以突出在启动合作方面取得的成功，并总结会议期间将进行的讨论。

1002676PikovThe International Conference on NeuroProsthetic Devices (ICNPD) will bring together international investigators of all levels to Beijing, China in order to discuss recent research findings and to establish new collaborations in the new and exciting field of Neuroprosthetic Devices. The conference will take place on February 27-28, 2010, preceded by a six-week online discussion of issues that will be addressed at the conference. Main support for the conference is provided by two top research institutions in China, the Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. NSF support will expand the participation of junior US researchers at the conference by subsidizing their travel costs and publication costs for their short papers in the special conference-dedicated issue of an open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics.The main conference theme will be the translation of the basic neuroscience and engineering research into clinical practice. There are multiple opportunities for the US and Chinese researchers to initiate collaborative projects in the development and testing of neuroprosthetic devices for multiple neurological disorders. At the conference there will be multiple discussion panels and poster sessions to stimulate the attendee interaction. The emphasis will be upon identifying the areas of possible collaborations and seeking to find the mechanism for jump-starting these collaborations, rather than simply to report on the research progress. Online resources will be created at the conclusion of the conference to highlight the successes in initiating the collaborations and to summarize the discussions which will take place during the conference.