The collaborative is an ad hoc activity convened under the auspices of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). The work it produces does not necessarily represent the views of any one organization, the Forum, or the National Academies, and is not subjected to the review procedures of, nor is it a report or product of, the National Academies.

Cutting-edge neuroscience research increasingly demands extensive technological, computational, and statistical skills and involves large collaborations; trainees are pursuing a broad range of careers in academia, private sector industries—which has evolved beyond pharmaceutical and biotech companies, to include engineering, data science, venture capital firms, finance, etc.—policy, publishing, and non-profit organizations; and traditional boundaries between sectors are becoming less rigid, with more extensive partnerships among the private sector and academia and more academics helping to found biotech companies. Taken together, these factors raise important questions about to how to design training programs that foster innovation across a dynamic ecosystem to ensure that the next generation of neuroscientists has the knowledge and skillset needed to pursue multiple career paths devoted to advancing biomedical science.

The Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders has led two activities devoted to examining the strengths and challenges in neuroscience training programs, including hosting a public workshop in 2014 and convening a working group that authored an article in Neuron titled “Neuroscience Training for the 21st Century.” Two recent National Academies consensus reports also provide a platform on which to build neuroscience-specific ideas: Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century(2018)and The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences Researchers: Breaking Through(2018). There have also been a number of high profile national and international task-forces on this topic.

In the 5 years since these earlier efforts at the Neuroscience Forum, the landscape of training and workforce needs have continued to evolve rapidly, and training remains a critical issue.

Collaborative Activities

The first initiative of the action collaborative is a virtual webinar series to examine the rapidly-evolving neuroscience career landscape—including academia, data science, computational neuroscience, biopharma, and the non-profit sector—and consider how neuroscience training programs can help trainees develop the knowledge and skillset needed to advance their careers and biomedical science.
The workshop series featured invited discussions that explored topics such as:

• Racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in neuroscience training (August 20, 2020);
• Neuroscience training in challenging times (January 19, 2021);
• Fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in neuroscience training (January 25, 2021)
• Re-envisioning postdoctoral training in neuroscience (February 16, 2021); and
• Evolving the culture of science and training to meet a changing world (February 22, 2021).

Collaborative Members

Rita Balice-Gordon (Co-Chair), Muna Therapeutics
Katja Brose (Co-Chair), The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Rosalind Segal (Co-Chair), Harvard University
Huda Akil, University of Michigan
David Cox, IBM Research AI
Sara Fenstermacher, New York University
Ayana Jordan, Yale School of Medicine
Stephen Korn, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Walter Koroshetz, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
John Krystal, Yale School of Medicine
Alan Leshner, American Association for the Advancement of Science (CEO Emeritus)
Peter MacLeish, Morehouse School of Medicine
Carol Mason, Columbia University
Gentry Patrick, University of California, San Diego
Mark Rasenick, The University of Illinois at Chicago
Todd Sherer, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Kaela S. Singleton, Emory University
M. Morgan Taylor, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Ashlee Van’t Veer, National Institute of Mental Health
Cristin Welle, University of Colorado, Denver
Andrew Welchman, Wellcome Trust