Remarkable progress in the understanding of the brain in recent years is due in part to the increasing role that theory and computational methods are playing in the design of experiments and interpretation of data. The annual Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) conference promotes this process by providing an inclusive forum for the exchange of experimental and theoretical/computational approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. This purpose of this project is to broaden participation of women and other under-represented groups at the Cosyne meeting. Travel awards and a variety of outreach activities are planned for the 2012, 2013, and 2014 meetings.
This grant was designed to broaden participation at the annual Cosyne meeting among women and under represented minorities (URMs). The NSF support was used at the 2012 - 2014 meetings to fund travel grants of 3 types: (1) the "New Attendees Travel Grant Program" and (2) the "Mentorship Travel Grant Program". In addition, some URM applicants were funded for "Presenter" travel grants at the 2014 meeting. The objective was to make the Cosyne meeting more attractive and/or more feasible to attend for female and URM participants, to increase the diversity at the meeting itself, which is good for the field, and to generate a token of professional recognition that the recipients could display on their CV's. This NSF grant supported 82 awards for female and URM attendees over the 3 year period. This was half of the (161) awards given out by the Cosyne conference during that period. While the participation levels among women and URMs remains too low at Cosyne, we believe that these grants were a significant help, and a small career boost, to the participants that received them. The field of computational neuroscience is currently quite narrow in terms of ethnic and gender composition (mostly male, mostly white, mostly US/european). This grant has facilitated participation in the field of early career female and URM scientists, and given each awardee a modicum of professional recognition.
