As the current NICHD Basic Sciences Institutes and Centers (IC) Representative, I represent NICHD postdoctoral fellows at the Fellows Committee (FelCom) meeting every month and share the latest news with you here. Do you have a concern or question that you want brought up at the next meeting? Contact me at lauren.walling@nih.gov!
The Visiting Fellows Committee is looking for new members to join their social subcommittee. Please contact Vrushali Agashe (vrushali.agashe@nih.gov) or Zeni Wu (zeni.wu@nih.gov) if you are interested!
The Committee on Scientific Conduct and Ethics has decided to add a new survey for fellows following the annual discussion of ethics cases. These case study discussions are part of our mandatory Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training and are organized and run at the affinity group level. The survey is being added to allow fellows an opportunity to provide feedback on the moderator and on how the session went overall. You can find more information about the ethics cases at https://oir.nih.gov/sourcebook/ethical-conduct/responsible-conduct-research-training/annual-review-ethics-case-studies.
Thank you to the FARE Committee for their hard work organizing the FARE award this year and thank you to everyone who applied. There were 193 awardees this year, representing the top 25% of applications reviewed. The committee is also discussing flexibilities with using the 2021 awards due to COVID-related travel restrictions, so keep an eye out for updates on this in the future. You can find more information about the FARE award or the committee at https://www.training.nih.gov/felcom/fare.
The National Postdoctoral Association recently issued formal comments to the US Department of Homeland Security calling for them to make the immigration process simpler, smoother, and faster for postdoctoral fellows. They asked for them to allow postdocs to apply for premium processing and allow more exemptions to the H-1B visa cap. For more information regarding visas and immigration, check out the Visiting Fellows page at https://ors.od.nih.gov/pes/dis/VisitingScientists/Pages/default.aspx.
FelCom will not meet in July, so the next Rep Report column will be in September. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer!