Spiralian White Paper Workshop; November 14-17, 2019; St. Augustine, Florida

这个为期四天的“螺旋动物白皮书研讨会”的目标是召集一个多样化的、专注的科学家小组，研究属于最大的后生动物超级进化纲——螺旋动物的动物。这一组包括熟悉的动物，如蚯蚓、水蛭、扇贝、牡蛎和章鱼，以及成千上万其他不太为人所知，但迷人而美丽的物种，如深海喷口蠕虫、巨蛤、裸鳃动物和扁形虫。这一群体中的许多动物对人类健康和工业有重要影响；例如，双壳类软体动物是全球食品供应链中的重要物种；寄生扁虫是常见的人类疾病媒介，管虫是船舶和码头上的持久性生物污垢。在更基础的研究层面上，这些动物是研究生命重要方面的优秀模型，如共生、再生和神经生物学。虽然有数百个实验室在研究这些物种，但由于缺乏支持研究和教学工作的基础设施，交流和协调受到阻碍。这次研讨会的目的是通过聚集该领域的许多领导者来设计方法来增加我们社区内的沟通、协作和基础设施，并增加我们在社区外的工作形象，从而消除这个瓶颈。在邀请会议参与者时，将注意多样性和职业阶段。会议的结果将作为免费提供的开放获取文件发表。后生动物超级进化支螺旋纲包含超过14种动物体表。其成员包括软体动物、环节动物、扁形蠕虫、螺虫、腕足动物和苔藓虫等物种群体，以及许多较小的、神秘的门。螺旋藻已被用作研究发育、基因组编辑、转基因、基因组学、共生、系统基因组学、系统地理学、形态学、生物矿化、神经发生、行为、再生、生态- devo和进化的模式生物。然而，在这个群体中从来没有专门的研究会议。Spiralian白皮书研讨会旨在将该领域的领导者聚集在一起，讨论他们研究的未来方向，并计划未来的研究，教学和外展活动。这个研讨会将导致一个更有凝聚力和有组织的核心社区的研究人员与螺旋体工作，能够有效地合作和互动。会议将邀请与会者，特别注意多样性和职业阶段。将撰写一份白皮书，概述这些生物作为研究和教学模型的优势和优势。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-Technical Paragraph The goal of this 4-day 'Spiralian White Paper Workshop' is to assemble a diverse and dedicated group of scientists studying animals that belong to the largest metazoan superclade, the Spiralia. This group includes familiar animals like earthworms, leeches, scallops, oysters, and octopus, as well as thousands of other less well known, but fascinating and beautiful species such as deep sea vent worms, giant clams, nudibranchs, and flatworms. Many of the animals in this group have important impacts on human health and industry; for example bivalve molluscs are important species in the global food supply chain; parasitic flatworms are common human disease vectors, and tube worms are persistent biofouling materials on ships and docks. On a more basic-research level these animals are excellent models for studying important aspects of life such as symbiosis, regeneration, and neurobiology. While many hundreds of labs work on these species, communication and coordination is hampered by the lack of infrastructure to support research and teaching efforts. This workshop aims to eliminate that bottle neck by gathering many of the leaders in the field to devise ways to increase communication, collaboration, and infrastructure within our community, and to increase the profile of our work outside the community. Attention will be paid to diversity and career stage when inviting meeting participants. The results of the meeting will be published as an a freely available open-access paper.Technical ParagraphThe metazoan super-clade Spiralia contains more than 14 animal body-plans. Members include speciose groups like molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths, nemerteans, brachiopods and bryozoans, as well as many smaller, enigmatic phyla. Spiralians have been used as model organisms to study development, genome-editing, transgenesis, genomics, symbiosis, phylogenomics, phylogeography, morphology, biomineralization, neurogenesis, behavior, regeneration, Eco-Devo, and evolution. Yet, there has never been a meeting dedicated to the research in this group. The Spiralian White Paper Workshop is designed to bring the leaders in the field together to discuss the future direction of their research and to plan future initiatives for research, teaching, and outreach. This workshop will result in a more cohesive and organized core community of researchers working with Spiralians, able to collaborate and interact effectively. Meeting participants will be invited with particular attention to diversity and to career stage. A white paper will be written to outline the strengths and advantages of these organisms as models for research and teaching.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.