On November 20th and 21st, 2014, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, NIH brought together agency staff and the recipients of the first BRAIN Initiative awards for an Investigators Kickoff Meeting. Over 200 participants gathered at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center to learn more about agency goals and expectations for The BRAIN InitiativeSM, meet and interact with each other, and identify potential areas of research coordination and collaboration. The BRAIN Initiative seeks new ways to advance science to generate new theories of brain function in health and disease. To this end, the Investigator Kickoff and future collaborative meetings will support the efforts of current and future investigators to accelerate technological transformation and advance the integration of experimentation.
Though a primarily closed-door event, a Washington Post reporter who observed the meeting recently wrote an article describing the meeting in relation to the initiative, and captured the truly collaborative nature of the Investigator Kickoff through interviews with multiple awardees.