Grant Number:	5R13AG066393-02 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	O'Connor, Mary-Frances
Organization:	American Psychosomatic Society (Aps)
Project Title:	Conference Grant to Support American Psychosomatic Society's 78th and 79th Annual Scientific Meetings
Fiscal Year:	2023

For over 75 years, the American Psychosomatic Society has provided an outstanding forum for trainees and established investigators and clinicians working within a wide range of disciplines and specialty areas to exchange new ideas and research strategies, ultimately facilitating and improving the quality of research and translation into clinical practice and public policy. Over 500 researchers and clinicians from around the world attend the annual APS meeting. This R13 conference grant would provide support for pre- and post-doctoral trainees to attend the 78th and 79th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society (APS). Previously supported by NHLBI for 12 years and NIA for 2 years, this R13 application requests support for up to 5 Diversity Travel Awards and 15 Young Scholar Awards. APS Diversity Travel Award, continuously funded by APS since 2007, will provide support for promising trainees from racial/ethnic or other underrepresented groups to attend the annual meeting. The Young Scholars Award Program, continuously awarded since 1998, will provide travel awards to competitively selected trainees who submit a first-author abstract to present a paper or poster and who are judged to show outstanding potential for a career in psychosomatic and behavioral medicine. As detailed in the Conference Plan, previous alums of these APS awards programs have developed into successful scientists and clinicians; the majority have remained in academia, and all have published in peer-review journals, with the majority publishing over 10 peer-review publications in their young careers. The APS annual meeting emphasizes research and training in biological, psychosocial, and behavioral mechanisms of health and disease across the lifespan. Planned NIA-related scholar programming for the 2020 meeting includes training by Steven P. Wallace on the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research centers and fellowship opportunities. In 2021, Rebecca Thurston will provide training for scholars on the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Repository, with information on access and highlighting the research findings from the study of mid-life, including ground-breaking work on cancer and other diseases. With MDs and PhDs from around the world, and seven decades of history, there is no other comparable scientific meeting that breaks down silos between medical specializations, psychology, epidemiology, and public health quite like APS does, including in its training opportunities.





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