Dr. Rod McInnes, Scientific Director of the IG, and Dr. Geoff Hicks, Chair of the New PI Priority and Planning (P&P) Committee, welcomed the participants. Dr. McInnes introduced the Workshop Manager, Jennifer Jennings, as well as the P&P Committee members: Susan Andrew, Benoit Bruneau, Nancy Hawkins and Josée Lavoie. Dr. McInnes explained that the meeting's mission was two-fold: 1) fostering collaborations "outside the walls" between new PIs in biochemistry and genetics, and 2) facilitating the often beneficial but unpredictable "Brownian movement" interactions between researchers. Geoff Hicks said that the Institute of Genetics hoped that this meeting will establish peer networks, mentorship and collaboration among our nation's newest basic biomedical researchers, thereby encouraging and fostering the development of Canada's basic biomedical research community.
After the welcoming remarks, Dr. Brenda Andrews of the University of Toronto gave a presentation on Mapping Genetic Networks Using Yeast Functional Genomics.
Other presentations included several by senior researchers:
Four scientific sessions were presented by new PIs in the areas of:
In addition to the scientific presentation sessions, all participants presented their own research and research programs in a two-hour poster session. While this idea was originally met with some trepidation, the poster session turned out to be one of the most fun-filled and social events of the meeting. At the request of the new PIs, this session will be expanded next year.
Three workshops were presented on topics identified by the participants as areas of top priority in setting up and managing a lab. Complete summaries of the workshops in a PDF downloadable file can be found by following the hyperlink to the IG New PI Booklet [document forthcoming]. The key points are highlighted below. Each entertaining and informative workshop was followed by open discussion.
Workshop I: Grant Writing and Getting Published. Rod McInnes gave a presentation entitled Writing Grants and Papers: How to Get Rich and Famous [document forthcoming].
Workshop II: Human Resources and Mentoring. Brenda Andrews gave a presentation entitled But, I'm a Scientist Not a Lawyer/HR Specialist/Psychiatrist/Accountant/Fill-in-the-blank: The Trials, Tribulations and Joys of Setting up Your Own Lab [document forthcoming].
Workshop III: Laboratory Leadership/Research Ethics/Technology Transfer. Richard Rachubinski gave a presentation entitled Churchill, Schweizer and Edison: Blending Them to Make the Modern Scientist [document forthcoming].
One of the highlights of the weekend was the presentation by Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR. Dr. Bernstein advised the new PIs to follow their instincts about where one's science should go, and to get good trainees for the lab and to encourage them to work hard. He encouraged multidisciplinary research and elaborated on the New Emerging Teams (NET) funding mechanism. He recommended that new PIs get to
know each other. Dr. Bernstein added that new PIs have great and interesting stories to tell the public and policy makers, and they should tell them; it is important to let taxpayers and the government know that they are getting a return on their investment. He pointed out that there have recently been half a dozen articles in Nature, positioning Canada as an excellent place to do health research.
Group discussion included the following topics:
Dr. Bernstein noted that in past years, in an effort to make CIHR's peer review process more transparent to members of the community and to help junior investigators learn about the peer review process, CIHR invited the Vice-Presidents of Research to each nominate a CIHR New Investigator or other promising junior investigator from their institution to come to Ottawa for two days to observe CIHR grants committees. This program has been successful both from the viewpoint of the observers and for the feedback that they have provided to Governing Council on the peer review process.
In his closing remarks, Rod McInnes stated that he was thrilled to meet all of the participants and that, having done so, he was confident that the future of Canadian health research was in tremendously good hands. He explained that, in order to integrate all four pillars of CIHR at future New PI Meetings, he anticipated organizing multi-Institute meetings in alternate years. He expressed his enthusiasm about the meeting, saying that, in his opinion, it was one of the most exciting things that had happened at the Institute since its inception in December, 2000. He announced that the meeting had been deemed such a success that the Briars was already booked for the Second Annual New PI Meeting, November 14-16, 2003.
The meeting concluded with Geoff Hicks thanking all the participants for their enthusiasm. He noted that the word on the street was that the meeting was a storming success that met its objectives, that the quality of the oral and poster presentations was outstanding and that there was a strong sense of collegiality among Canada's next generation of leading researchers.
