The Career Development and Outreach Branch (CDOB) organized and supported a cadre of research and career development activities this year. CDOB developed educational curricula and training plans via one-on-one consultations to synthesize Independent Development Plans (IDPs) for each research, postdoc, visiting, pre-doc, post-bac, and summer fellow. Our customized training programs are dedicated to intense mentoring and training a new generation of scientists with the focus on the health problems within our research mandate. NIAMS CDOB has initiated policy to ensure trainees (2nd year and beyond) complete IDPs as a requirement of their intramural training responsibilities. Individual consultations are provided to assist with this training. Annually, CDOB organizes and supports a cadre of research and career development activities to include: (1) Making the Right Moves, a seminar to guide scientific management for postdocs, research fellows and staff scientists; (2) organizing and moderating the Annual Biomedical Research Ethics Training Course; (3) planning and sponsoring two independent Grant Writers Seminars and Workshops including sessions on the NIH grant Review Process; (4) coordinating seminars on navigating the Postbac program, with an emphasis on applying and interviewing for professional programs; (5) organizing a collaborative network to foster potential pipelines for our fellows with academic, industry and other government partners (6) career counseling; (7) CV/resume writing, (8) offering a scientific writing course through a trans-NIH collaboration; and (9) managing the NIAMS IRP Scientific Travel Award for Research Assistants (STAR Award) program. NIAMS has teamed up with other institutes to provide information on programs that are beneficial to our trainees to include: NIH-Wellcome Trust Program, NIH-Oxford Cambridge Scholars Program, Karolinska Institute Neuroscience Partnership, NIH Graduate Partnership Program, Duke-NIH Masters Program in Clinical Research and the NIH Stadtman Investigator recruitment program. A major point of emphasis this year in CDOB has been on grant writing and the grant submission process. In this effort, CDOB has organized grant writing seminars and workshops in addition to providing resources to all trainees for NIH and other non-NIH funding opportunities. Our goal is for all trainees to submit a NIH and/or non-NIH grant early in their training program in order to receive optimal training and develop an expertise that will be integral toto their future research careers. CDOB participated in the Emergency Management/Continuity of Operations Planning (EM/COOP) group, which plans and coordinates emergency transitions on the NIH campus. In addition, CDOB took the lead in administrating the NIH Loan Repayment Program for NIAMS fellows, organized and moderated the mandatory Annual Biomedical Research Ethics Training, organized the Annual Scientific Research Training event, and represented NIAMS on the NIH-wide Training Directors Committee. CDOB provided planning and organizational resources for the NIAMS Intramural Research Program Annual Training, managed the NIAMS IRP Research Assistants Travel Award program, and led NIAMS outreach and recruitment comprised of development, planning and/or oversight of the following: NIH National Graduate Student Research Festival (planning); NIH Community College Day (creation and development); NIH Community College Summer Enrichment Program (creation and direction); Trans-NIH Scientific and Medical Recruitment Forum (oversight); the NIAMS Adopt-a-School Partnership Programs (organizer), with school partners including Woodrow Wilson Senior High School's SciMaTech Academy (Washington, DC), Wheaton High Schools Academy of Biosciences and Health Professions (Wheaton, MD), Bell Multicultural Senior High School (Washington, DC), and Schools for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED), in particular The SEED School of Washington, DC; Science Fairs in the community (workshop development and judging); NIH Hispanic Heritage Month Program (planning); and lastly, participation at national conferences to promote diversity in biomedical research careers, including Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). To continue our outreach and recruitment efforts, CDOB played a major role in campus events for a variety of organizations, including the National Youth Initiatives for Biomedical Research, the National Native American Youth Initiatives, the National Hispanic Youth Initiative, the National African American Youth Initiative, and other similar non-profit organizations. For these events, CDOB hosted visiting students, gave oral presentations, and coordinated access to NIH areas of interest including laboratory tours. Through these events, CDOB was able to raise nationwide awareness among students today of the exciting potential offered by a career in science, and all that CDOB and NIH can offer them along that career path. Continuing to promote diversity and inclusion is expected to contribute significantly to the ability of the NIH and NIAMS IRP to sustain its capacity to make distinctive contributions to biomedical research. NIAMS is actively working with several NIH groups, including NIH Training Directors, Training Grant Populations, Special Populations and Diversity Program Coordinators, Office of Research on Womens Health, Scientific Interest affinity Groups, Demographic Affinity Groups (Women Scientists Advisors Committee, SACNAS and Black Scientist and Friends Network). Collaboration with non-NIH groups included the National Science Foundation, Professional Societies with diversity programs, diversity program officials at universities and medical schools (Meyerhoff Program at UMBC, Benjamin Banneker Program at Maryland, the MINDS Program at Hopkins), demographic affinity groups (SACNAS, Hispanic Medical Association, Association for Women in Science, Association of American Indian Physicians, National Hispanic Science Network) and Foundations that fund biomedical research training (UNCF-Merck Scholars, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Howard Hughes) to coordinate the efforts of the recruitment. Additionally, through a trans-NIH initiative and with the support of the Office of the Scientific Director, NIAMS CDOB is sponsoring postdoctoral and post-baccalaureate IRP positions with an emphasis on diversity in the biomedical research workforce, although we are encouraging all parties to apply. Continuing with national and local efforts to increase diversity, we have established a working collaboration with the Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County Meyerhoff Scholar Program, Trinity University, Univ. of Maryland, Howard University, Morgan State Univ., and others to host their scholars for campus tours and scientific demonstrations as a recruiting tool to spark the interest and participation in he ongoing research in NIAMS. NIAMS still continues to support the UPenn/Southern Methodist Univ. STEMPREP Program, a program that allows high school students from minority and underserved populations to participate in summer research in NIAMS and other NIH IC laboratories. And finally, NIAMS CDOB initiated a new working collaboration with the United Negro College Fund Merck Scholars, to provide both scientific and career training.
