Conference: National Postdoctoral Association Pre-Conference Session to Promote IMPACT Fellowship Success

不同机构博士后的国情差异很大，许多来自代表性不足背景的人无法获得其他人可以获得的职业发展资源。在一些资源不足的机构，不仅缺乏对博士后的支持和规划，而且没有专门的办公室来处理博士后事务，或者博士后的结构化职业和专业支持有限。即使在资源更丰富的机构，培训环境和研究实验室也可能使来自边缘背景的个人孤立起来。为了正面解决这些问题，美国国家博士后协会（NPA）于2021年启动了IMPACT奖学金计划，作为一个以社区和关系建设为核心的基于群体的专业发展机会。它为来自代表性不足的社区的博士后参与者提供了获得个人和职业资源的途径，通过同伴和导师的队列帮助研究员战略性地建立现有技能，识别机会，并在他们的职业生涯中取得进步。NPA IMPACT项目课程强调关系学习和自我效能，旨在最大限度地提高研究员的归属感和与更广泛社区的联系，并为博士后学者提供教育和职业途径，以帮助扩大STEM和相关研究的参与。该项目帮助培养了一批来自弱势背景的成功、有能力的首批IMPACT学员，增加了他们获得领导职位的机会，从而广泛造福社会。该项目将授权IMPACT项目研究员，以及选定的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金（PRFB）研究员，通过丰富的项目最后会议，作为NPA年会的会前活动。奖学金获得者将第一次见面，并与他们的导师见面，并参与促进和延长整个奖学金学习目标持续时间的活动。经过广泛的前期准备，为期一天的会议将集中探讨个人价值观的关键领域及其与研究员科学研究和职业选择的关系，围绕由科学进步的包容和价值识别专家举办的两个研讨会。国家行动计划将通过采用四要素战略促进会议，以实现这一结果：1)同行讨论和学习；2)由演讲者主持的研讨会；3)现场课程评价；4)社交机会。研究员还将能够在NPA年度会议上探索教育机会，该会议将在本次会议后的两天内举行。本次IMPACT会议将为研究员提供工具，使他们能够利用获得的知识和资源在其机构中实施活动或倡议，并为社区做出贡献，进一步扩大整体影响。会议将使用既定的有效性工具和标准进行评估，以通知下一个IMPACT课程的计划改进。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。

National conditions among postdocs across various institutions vary greatly, with many individuals from underrepresented backgrounds lacking access to career enhancing resources available to others. At some under-resourced institutions, there is not only a lack of support and programming for postdocs, there is no office assigned to handle postdoc affairs or the structured career and professional support for postdocs is limited. Even at higher-resourced institutions, training environments and research labs can be isolating for individuals from marginalized backgrounds. To address these issues head-on, the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) launched the IMPACT Fellowship Program in 2021 as a cohort-based professional development opportunity with community and relationship building at its core. It provides postdoctoral participants from underrepresented communities with access to personal and career resources via cohorts of peers and mentors helping Fellows strategically build upon existing skills, recognize opportunities, and advance in their careers. The NPA IMPACT Program curriculum emphasizes relational learning and self-efficacy, is designed nimbly to maximize Fellows’ sense of belonging and connection to a broader community and provide education and career pathways to postdoctoral scholars to help broaden participation in STEM and related research. The program benefits society broadly by helping create a successful, empowered first class of IMPACT Fellows from disadvantaged backgrounds, increasing their chance of achieving leadership positions.The project will empower IMPACT Program Fellows, as well as selected NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) Fellows, through an enriching final session of the program that will be held as a pre-conference event at the NPA’s annual conference. Fellows will meet one another as well as their mentors in person for the first time and engage in activities that promote and extend the duration of the learning objectives of the full Fellowship. Empowered by extensive advanced preparation, the day-long session will focus on exploring the critical area of personal values and their relation to Fellows scientific research and career choices centered on a pair of workshops run by experts in inclusion and value identification for scientific advancement. The NPA will facilitate the session by using a four-component strategy to achieve this result: 1) peer discussion and learning; 2) speaker-led workshops; 3) live course evaluation; and 4) networking opportunities. Fellows will also be able to explore the educational opportunities at the NPA Annual Conference, occurring during the two days directly following this session. This IMPACT session will provide tools to Fellows to use the knowledge and resources they gain to implement activities or initiatives at their institutions and to contribute back to their communities, further scaling the overall impact. The session will be evaluated using established effectiveness tools and criteria to inform program improvements for the next IMPACT course.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.