Welcome

The NIH Common Fund is pleased to announce the 2019 High-Risk, High-Reward Research Symposium. The symposium will take place June 5-7, 2019, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bethesda, MD. The symposium is free, open to the public, and will bring together recipients of the NIH Director's Pioneer, New Innovator, Transformative Research, and Early Independence awards to share their groundbreaking research and discoveries. Awardees are encouraged to use the symposium as an opportunity to network with other researchers and meet with NIH staff and leadership. The symposium includes scheduled networking time, opportunities to meet with NIH staff during "office hours," and a scheduled happy hour.

Who should attend?

The symposium is meant to bring together current recipients of the NIH Director's Pioneer, New Innovator, Transformative Research, and Early Independence awards but is open to anyone interested in cutting-edge science and transformative discoveries, including (but not limited to) NIH staff, students, lab members, and the general public. See the registration page for more information.

Who are the presenters?

Only NIH Director's Pioneer, New Innovator, Transformative Research, or Early Independence awardees are allowed to speak or present a poster. For talks, only awardees are allowed to present. For posters, awardees are strongly preferred, but designees may be accepted in exceptional circumstances. All awardees attending the symposium are encouraged (but not required) to participate in the program as either a speaker or poster presenter. Interested awardees should submit an abstract for a talk or poster, but given the limited number of speaking slots and poster space, not all submissions may be selected. NIH staff will make programmatic decisions on which abstract submissions are selected for the final program. See the abstract submission page for more information. 

NIH programmatic and scientific review staff from various institutes and centers will be available for 20-minute chats during scheduled "office hours" to meet with individuals or small groups. Information on the NIH staff participating and sign-up for these meetings will be available at a later date.

What are some of the symposium topics?

Agendas and abstracts for past symposiums are available on the past events page.

Can I register now?

Yes, registration is open.

Can I make hotel reservations now?

Yes, the room block for the symposium is now open. See the hotel/travel page for more information.

Who arranges and pays for hotel accommodations and travel?

All hotel and travel arrangements and payments are the sole responsibility of the symposium attendee. NIH program staff do not pay for or make any travel arrangements for symposium attendees, including for selected speakers.

Where can I find symposium abstracts?

The listed Poster and Talk abstracts are available on the abstract page.

Join our Listserv or contact us at HRHR_Symposium@mail.nih.gov