The International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA) Congress is the premier worldwide scientific meeting devoted to alcohol research. While its roots are in the biomedical aspects of alcohol research, over the last decade the Congress has provided a venue for all alcohol research areas including psychosocial, biobehavioral, intervention, and clinical research. ISBRA Congresses are held biennially and, since the founding of ISBRA, meetings have been held in Germany, U.S.A., Finland, Japan, Canada, UK, Australia, and Denmark. For the 15th Congress in 2010, ISBRA will be meeting in Paris, France. While the Congress is convened every six years in Europe, this will be the first time the Congress has met in France. The location of the meeting is appropriate given the collaborations being developed between the NIAAA and INSERM, NIAAA's French equivalent. The venue will provide an attractive opportunity for scientists from around the world to come together to present and discuss their research. This Congress typically has a large impact on alcohol research in many countries, including those typically associated with having significant alcohol research programs and just as important, to those just developing programs. The program will feature topics that are highly relevant to the international alcohol research community and provide opportunities for discussion of existing and new collaborative research. At present, approximately 55% of the ISBRA membership is U.S. based This application requests funds to offset expenses for scientists attending this important Congress of ISBRA. Funds will be targeted to U.S. scientists speaking at this meeting, although some funding will be used to offset expenses from foreign scientists who otherwise might not be able to attend. Additionally, a substantial amount of the funding is targeted to younger investigators, who typically do not have the resources for attending an international meeting. Funds are requested for travel and registration fees for 75 researchers. In addition, partial per diems are requested for the younger scientists. Partial publication costs for the Congress program and abstract book are also being requested.
Alcohol abuse is an international problem and a major public health problem. Funds are being requested to defray travel costs for scientists to attend the 15th Congress of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA), the premier world-wide scientific forum on biomedical and psychosocial aspects of alcohol abuse. Much of this funding will go to young U.S. scientists without funds to attend an international meeting and scientists from countries lacking established alcohol research programs, since much of the increases seen in alcohol is occurring in developing countries.
