About the Conference Program

The Janelia conference program includes small meetings, primarily in areas central to the research interests of Janelia Farm. These are intense and specialized meetings intended to encourage rapid advances and to foster collaborative interactions. Attendance at Janelia conferences is selective: All participants are expected to contribute to the intellectual content of the meeting, including graduate students and post-docs. To achieve these goals, all of the attendees will be active members of the research field in question and all will be active participants, if not speakers.

THE DETAILS

• Dates: Conferences run in the spring from March through mid-June and in the fall from September through November. Meetings generally start with dinner on Sunday and end around mid-day on Wednesday, but variations are possible.
• Size: Janelia conferences range from small workshops to meetings of up to about 100 people.
• Structure: Each conference normally has at least one external and one internal organizer (usually a Janelia lab head). Meetings are announced on the Janelia website and openly advertised so that interested members of the scientific community may apply to participate through our open, web-based system. The organizers invite all primary participants and will select additional participants from the pool of online applicants. Presentations may include talks and/or posters.
• Accommodation: All external participants are housed on site in our guesthousing. A fitness center is available for guests' use.
• Childcare: We have childcare available here for children between the ages of six weeks and five years (space permitting, see http://centers.brighthorizons.com/learninglab/index.cfm). The hours are 7 am to 6:30 pm. Participants must pay for this and the cost varies depending on the age of your child. Some paperwork is required in advance (vaccination certificates, etc). If you would like to use this facility, please contact Evelyn Ocasio Villanueva at (571) 209-4025 or ocasiovillanuevae@janelia.hhmi.org for more information.
• Abstract Book: To facilitate interactions, all conference participants (both speakers and others) are asked to provide a short abstract on their research interests, which will be combined into an abstract book.
• Publication: Presentations at Janelia conferences do not constitute scientific publications and their scientific content may not be shared outside of the conference without the express permission of the presenter. Permission is required for sharing through tweets, websites, or blogs as well as more traditional means of communication. This has been the standard ethic for dissemination of unpublished results presented in closed scientific meetings and we feel that this ethic is important to promote the free exchange of unpublished material, which is in the interests of all participants. The advent of new internet technology does not change the standards for ethical conduct of science.
  
  For these reasons, participants are not permitted to record presentations or posters by electronic or photographic means without the express permission of the presenter. Given these assurances, presenters should speak openly and not allude to any data or experiments that they are not prepared to discuss in full.
  
  The application to participate in a Janelia conference contains the following statement: "Presentations and posters are not to be recorded by electronic or photographic means, and the scientific content of Janelia conference presentations, posters and discussions is not to be shared outside of the conference, without the express permission of the presenter. Permission is required for sharing through tweets, websites, or blogs as well as more traditional means of communication. Authors are requested to omit references to the scientific content of Janelia conferences from any publication." Each participant must agree to these provisions.
• Internal Web-casting: We record platform talks and broadcast them within our Janelia laboratory building via the Janelia intranet ONLY (on our intranet) for the convenience of our scientists. We hold these recordings for seven days after the talk and then delete them from our systems. All participants must agree to this recording.
• Cost: HHMI covers the cost of the meeting, including food and accommodation for all participants. Travel costs are discussed below. HHMI funds the local costs of the meeting, including food and accommodation for all participants.
• Travel: Conference organizers are allotted funds to provide travel scholarships to a fraction of participants. In accordance with our Travel Policy, travel expenses for these participants will be reimbursed up to a fixed amount based on the average cost of advanced-purchase, coach-class, air travel from the participant's geographical region to Janelia Farm. Unless otherwise approved, you must attend the entire conference in order to receive your reimbursement. Click HERE to download our detailed travel policy.

JANELIA CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR STUDENTS FROM DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS

Conference scholarships that cover the cost of travel and specified associated out-of-pocket expenses (for example, printing of a poster) are offered by Janelia Farm to graduate students who would otherwise be unable to participate in our programs. This program will fund graduate students who are members of a group underrepresented in the sciences, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or who are interested in promoting diversity in the sciences to attend conferences at Janelia. This will function to increase access of these students to leading scientists and to enrich the possible recruiting pool for Janelia Farm. One scholarship will be awarded per conference.

• Eligibility: Any matriculated graduate student may apply. To be eligible for consideration, an applicant must self-identify as a member of a group underrepresented in the sciences, as having come from a disadvantaged background, or as being interested in promoting diversity in the sciences.
  
  A student is considered to come from a disadvantaged background if he or she comes from an environment that hindered (but did not prevent) him or her from obtaining the knowledge, skills, and ability required to enroll in an undergraduate institution. For example, students from very low-income families (such as those eligible for food stamps or public housing) or whose parents did not go to college are considered to come from a disadvantaged background.
• Application: Scholarship applicants should submit and application via our web-base system. When students log on to the application system, they will be asked to:
• * specify which conference they wish to attend
  * explain why they will benefit scientifically from attending
  * explain how they believe they meet the eligibility requirements
  * provide a CV
  * nominate one referee (who must be their advisor)
• In addition, they must apply to the conference through the online registration system and submit their research abstract.
• Applications will be assessed by the Janelia Farm Associate Director for Science and Training in conjunction with the conference organizers.
• Logistics: Students will be funded to travel to and attend a conference. We will also support their associated costs (such as printing a poster, if applicable). The total number will be one per conference.
• Deadline to apply: May 14, 2010 2PM ET.

  Apply here http://www.hhmi.org/janelia/application/conf-may2010

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