Never before has the American biomedical research been paused the way it is during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decisions universities, federal agencies and researchers make during these times will reverberate throughout the research enterprise for years to come.
The systemic flaws in biomedical research have been outlined numerous times prior to the pandemic. But the pandemic has brought many of these flaws into stark relief. Vulnerable populations in biomedical research—trainees, immigrants, underrepresented minorities and others—before the emergence of COVID-19 are facing even greater challenges now.
There are plenty of resources for how to make it through this era of physical distancing, but there are significantly fewer conversations about how we can use this time to figure out how to best make the biomedical research workforce stronger and more sustainable when research operations reopen.
Starting Thursday, Apr. 23 at 2pm Eastern, and continuing each week, we will be hosting discussion sessions focused on the concerns of different constituencies of the biomedical research enterprise and possible solutions to the problems they face. These discussions will lead to a series of recommendations for universities and federal agencies to implement that address the real concerns and needs of the various constituencies of researchers.
The schedule of discussion sessions is:
- Thursday, Apr. 23: Trainees—with guests from Future of Research and the National Postdoctoral Association
- Thursday, Apr. 30: Pandemic preparedness—guests to be determined
- Thursday, May 7: Faculty—with guests from DORA
- Thursday, May 14: Underrepresented minorities—with guests from BLACKandSTEM and Ciencia PR
Sessions will be conducted by GoToMeeting. Sign up here and we will send the link to join on the day of the event.