Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
October 2023

Mentors and participants at the 2023 INMD-IG New Principal Investigator Meeting, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This month, INMD co-hosted a New Principal Investigator (PI) meeting with the Institute of Genetics (IG) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This meeting brought together Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the first 5 years of their first academic appointments with the goal to enhance their success in obtaining future grant funding and provide them with knowledge mobilization skills and tools. This was INMD’s first New PI Meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic. It was wonderful to meet with so many ECRs in person to celebrate science and learn from one another.

We were so fortunate to have exceptional mid-career and senior researchers participate in the meeting as speakers to provide mentorship. The agenda incorporated a diverse range of topics and sessions, including how to build a research career, knowledge mobilization, patient engagement in research, grant writing and a mock peer review. I want to thank each of the mentors for their thoughtful and inspiring presentations and for candidly sharing their wisdom and personal stories about their science and how they balance their academic and personal lives: Dr. Brandy Wicklow, Dr. Christine Doucette, Dr. Julie Ho and Dr. Geoff Hicks (University of Manitoba), Dr. Andre Tchernof (Laval University), Dr. Todd Alexander (University of Alberta), Dr. Leah Cahill and Dr. Paola Marcato (Dalhousie University), Dr. Monika Kastner (University of Toronto). I also wish to especially thank Dr. Treena Delormier (McGill U), for providing an inspiring presentation about Indigenous Health Research (IHR), and for the leadership she is providing through the Quebec Network Environment in IHR (NEIHR) which is building capacity for IHR in Quebec.

Many of the ECRs who participated in the meeting told us that they began their academic appointments during the pandemic, and so they lacked opportunities to meet with their colleagues and find mentors from their own institutions and departments. I hope that they took inspiration from this meeting to find new mentors and seek out the mentorship they need, and that they enjoyed the opportunity to build connections and network with colleagues.

Thanks to Dr. Chris McMaster, Scientific Director of IG and the IG team for co-hosting this successful meeting with INMD, and I wish all of the ECRs who participated in the meeting great success as they embark on their research careers!

Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

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