LINDSEY ANN Martin
$20,000
LOUISIANA STATE UNIV A&M COL BATON ROUGE
Louisiana
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
The Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health (PBC) will partner with SRP Investigators to develop a series of meetings on topical themes. An alternating schedule of one day focus meetings on “hot topics” and full International Conferences is planned running from 2021 to 2026. This application will be limited to the first three years, but the full plan is outlined for context. • 2021 Focus meeting, Brisbane, Australia, Environmental impacts on infectious disease. • 2022 Conference, Jeju Island South Korea, Environmental exposures in a changing climate. • 2023 Focus meeting, Louisiana State University, USA, Pandemic planning – lessons from COVID-19. • 2024 Conference, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Theme TBA. • 2025 Focus meeting, CRI Bangkok, Thailand, Theme TBA. • 2026 Conference, NIAID Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Theme TBA. Focus meetings will be held within Universities (or similar) over one day, with “virtual” attendance and participation facilitated. Full conferences will be held over 3 ½ days and include training workshops, plenary sessions, symposia, poster presentation sessions, and a dedicated unopposed session for student oral presentations. The Focus meetings and Conference themes align with the NIEHS SRP mission and NIEHS Strategic Goals 2018- 2023, “advancing environmental health sciences”, “promoting translation of scientific knowledge to action”, and “enhancing environmental health sciences through stewardship and support”. The PBC has a long history of working with regional Universities and Professional Societies to maximize participation of local students, junior faculty and trainees in line with SRP goals. All PBC Conferences have similar objectives: promotion of human and environmental health through education and practice in toxicology, engineering and sanitation, and a focus on priority environmental health issues in the host country. Each conferences has been attended by 250-300 participants with 60% or more coming from the Asia-Pacific region. We request $295,000 from NIEHS to (i) facilitate conference organization (ii) incentivize the participation of students, early career researchers and young professionals, with particular focus on female and underrepresented minority participation, through travel grants and registration waivers, and (iii) facilitate attendance of local students through accommodation and registration support. The meeting program costs over the three years is estimated at $700,000. Additional support will come from the PBC, host institutions, local societies and Governments, and other NIH Institutions.