In November 2021, NIH took the content of their usual regional grants seminar and brought it online to allow for broader participation despite the pandemic. Registration was free, and the four-day seminar featured three live parallel tracks, along with a variety of asynchronous presentations to watch anytime and a number of opportunities to meet one-on-one with program officers and other NIH representatives to talk about individual points of interest.
The three tracks were geared at three different audiences: one for new researchers (the faculty we support), one for new research administration professionals, and one for seasoned research administration professionals to dive into advanced topics. There were interesting presentations on all three tracks – and helpfully, all presentations were recorded so that attendees could watch them later at their own convenience. The materials gave a clear introduction to NIH’s perspective on their extramural funding programs, and the live presentations allowed for quite a bit of detailed Q&A on pressing topics.
Several timely topics were explored, including NIH’s UNITE Initiative to address structural racism within the scientific community, major concerns about foreign influence that have led to new disclosure requirements on biosketches & Other Support documents, and a deep dive into the most recent forms for proposals. The “introductory” research administration track included a number of insights for any professional in this area, even those who have worked with NIH extensively in the past, and as a whole is a great resource for anyone who is just starting out in research administration or just branching out into NIH-funded research. I personally found the presentation on the finer points of defining human subjects research very helpful – it will inform the ways I talk with my PIs about their projects very early in the proposal process so we can make sure we are targeting the right funding opportunities.
The full set of recorded presentaitons and the backup materials for each is available online at https://grants.nih.gov/virtual-seminar-2021/presentations.html – and contains a wealth of information you may find useful for yourself or as a reference to send to one of your PIs. The regional seminars were a great resource, but limited to those who were able to travel to be on-site each year. This transition to a virtual format is a wonderful opportunity to make that information available to all who work with NIH-funded research.
By: TJ Hubbs, Senior Research Administrator, Neurology; Feinberg School of Medicine