Progress 03/01/22 to 02/28/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The first "Changing Microbiomes" conference was successfully held at the Pennsylvania State University from May 31st - June 3rd, 2022. The overall goal of the symposium was to provide space for researchers to connect, exchange knowledge, and partner to advance our understanding of the mechanisms and applications of ecological and evolutionary changes in microbiomes across systems. The symposium spanned terrestrial and aquatic contexts and host-associated and free-living microbial communities. As such, the symposium will enable cross-disciplinary knowledge and idea exchange to promote future interdisciplinary collaborations. In addition, the program allowed formal and informal interactions between and among students, postdocs, PIs, and industry scientists. The target audience was microbiome scientists and researchers spanning career stages but with a special focus on early career scientists representing the future of microbiome science. We expected ~150 participants, and the symposium eventually gathered 121 (after about a dozen last-minute cancelations due to COVID-19). Symposium advertisement and funding mechanisms, including travel grants, were designed to increase the representation of early-career researchers and scientists from communities that are underrepresented in science, historically marginalized, or are employed by PUI's, HBCU's, HSACUs, TCU's, PMSI, etc. Among the participants were also 15 invited speakers selected to cover a wide range of microbiome science topics while representing a diverse career-stage and institution-type pool and offering role model examples from different backgrounds. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This conference brought together 46 graduate students, three undergraduates, and nineteen postdoctoral scholars and funded travel grants for 20 of these early-career participants. Emily Davenport also offered a two-hour metadata standards workshop on "Microbiome Data Standardization" with the DOE-funded National Microbiome Data Collaborative. Both were attended by over half of the participants. This workshop focused on teaching "FAIR" principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of digital data) and seeking participant feedback to develop microbiome metadata standards across fields. In addition, we offered two Professional Development activities to support attendees' career development and networking. A workshop led by PSMC Director Dr. Carolee Bull (e.g., Being your Own Best Mentor) and a professional networking event after this workshop. ?Long term, the exchange of knowledge facilitated by this conference is advancing the translation of microbiome insights into agricultural practices. Agricultural intensification approaches are shifting from fossil-fuel reliance to systems-based strategies that can deploy our expanded knowledge of microbiomes' roles in human and environmental health. Early-career conference attendees shared innovative insights from cutting-edge research on microbiome-facilitated crop resilience and soil productivity. Soil and plant-associated microbiomes have the potential to be harnessed to improve crop growth and resilience, pest and pathogen resistance, and more efficient nutrient use. Farmers, consumers, and scientists increasingly recognize the value of these ecological relationships in protecting soil and water resources for agriculture. Microbiomes are a critical frontier in agricultural sciences, potentially promoting food safety, security, and sustainability on a continuously changing planet. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The main symposium website, including registration and abstract submission, is hosted by OCSC. This site was an integrated event registration and a tracking device containing all information about the symposium, abstract submission and registration mechanisms, and logistical details. OCSC maintains this site as part of its logistical services. Electronic announcements advertising the symposium were distributed via several outlets to ensure the participation of a diverse group of researchers. The organizing committee leveraged our connections with the microbiome community to advertise through far-reaching networks. This network includes memberships in the Microbiome Center Consortium which advertised the conference in our newsletter. In addition, announcements on widely used event boards such as ECOLOG-L Twitter hashtags targeted diverse audiences, such as SACNAS, Diversify Microbiology, and the Black Microbiologists Association (BMA). We also sent targeted communications about the event to relevant university departments, including those in primarily minority-serving (PMI) institutions, HBCUs, HSACUs, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Summary: Microbiome change is critical to current and future biogeochemical fluxes, agricultural sustainability, and human health. Around the globe, microbiomes are changing due to natural and human-driven processes. Controlling any facet of microbiomes requires understanding the change's ecological and evolutionary drivers. This symposium aimed to jumpstart a biennial event that will yield an ongoing, supportive, diverse, intimate environment for microbiome researchers at all career stages to connect. In addition, we expect the symposium to stimulate new research collaborations, inspire papers cutting across disciplines, and speed the adoption of cutting-edge tools into agricultural and translational contexts. It was two long years of COVID disruptions to networking and research in the Microbiome Community. We provided the physical space and the mental opportunity to return to the rhythms and comforts of a traditional, intimate conference. We successfully hosted a conference that brought together 121 scientists from 24 states and five countries from 31st May- to 3rd June in Boalsburg, PA. We hosted 46 graduate students, three undergraduates, 19 postdocs, 25 Assistant Professors, 7 Associate Professors, 12 Full Professors, two industry scientists, and seven staff scientists. The program featured 15 invited talks, 16 abstract-selected talks, and 56 poster presentations. We also used rubrics to give awards for the best early career talks and posters and hosted three professional development events. The USDA conference grant allowed us to fund seven invited speakers, 20 early career travel grants, a networking reception, and subsidize registration for early career participants to increase student affordability ($200 student registration fee included all meals). Foster Diversity and Belonging: This conference strove to stimulate interactions among diverse scientists who seek to understand ways to establish and sustain effective, well-functioning microbiomes in agricultural systems. We increased diversity, representation, and a sense of belonging of stakeholders at the intersection of Microbiome and Agricultural Sciences via three mechanisms 1) bringing in a diverse slate of invited speakers that represent the breadth of breakthrough practitioners in this area, 2) increasing access to the symposium via travel grants for presenters, 3) providing explicit professional development and networking training for attendees. All three of these activities were supported by this conference grant. To assess success, we administered an anonymous, pre-conference survey to gather demographics from participants and got 44 responses (~36% response rate). Overall, the career-stage demographics of the survey largely represented the known overall career stages of all conference participants. This voluntary demographic data suggests we pulled together a diverse group. A few characteristics of note: 61% of participants identified as cis-women and 24% as cis-men. 30% identified as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community 43% identified as persons of color (20% Hispanics/Latin(o/a/x/e), 14% South/East Asian, 7% Black, and 2% multi-racial). 32% of participants were the first in their families to attend college, and 23% self-identified as non-traditional students. When we asked, "Regardless of your career stage, did you feel welcome to share ideas and ask questions?" the answer was 100% yes, indicating that the participants felt empowered to express their opinion during the symposium, a key component of a supportive environment. Participants also mentioned things that could be improved, including accessibility by systematically using live capture to subtitle talks and increasing the amount of unscheduled time for informal interactions. Here are some anonymous quotes from participants: "As unlike BIG meetings, there were no cliques at this meeting. Everybody was open to talking and joining any conversation." "All the activities were very welcoming, the environments I enjoyed the most were the talks and the dining rooms where we sat and talked to everyone calmly." "The opening remarks emphasized the excitement and welcoming disposition of the conference organizers." "People felt very ready to invite anyone to sit/eat and into conversations, I felt comfortable approaching anyone by the end of the conference regardless of whether I had met them before." "the organizers did a great job of breaking down power dynamics by mixing talks across career levels, not having degree titles on name tags, and creating a true microbiome community-centered event. I felt comfortable talking to anyone, and it was great connecting with big-wigs and rising stars alike." Promote Networking and Connections:The symposium spanned terrestrial and aquatic contexts and host-associated and free-living microbial communities. As such, the symposium enabled cross-disciplinary knowledge and idea exchange to promote future interdisciplinary collaborations. 86% of participants ranked the symposium eight or above (on a scale from 1-10) on 'breadth and diversity of topics" in the post-conference survey. In addition to a strong contingent studying plant and soil microbiomes, we also attracted researchers studying human and animal microbiomes, aquatic microbiomes, and aerial microbiomes. We brought into conversation scientists from industry (10/15 Visioneers) and government agencies (). To facilitate communication before, during, and after the conference, we also set up a SLACK channel for conference participants to communicate that continues to be used to post jobs and troubleshoot problems. Participants noted: "I loved that I got to network and build community. As a newcomer to the field, I also felt that the talks and posters provided an excellent introduction to microbiome research." "All the breaks made networking very easy. The posters with the food in the room gave many opportunities to view them. Thought the slack channel was a great idea." "The size of the conference was perfect for networking. I met potential collaborators I hope to get a chance to work with in the future, and made some friends. I can't say enough good things about this meeting. I especially appreciated everyone's compliance with the mask mandate. I felt very safe." "Bringing different perspectives in studying microbiomes: ecological, evolutionary, modeling, sequencing, metabolomics, genetics, model vs. native and so on" "I thought the conference was really well done. The location was great and very picturesque. The talks were all very interesting. The awards were a nice idea too, especially for the posters and ECR talks" DevelopPenn State Microbiome Center and Members: The Symposium provided an important career launchpad for the Agricultural Community of Microbiome researchers at Penn State. Two-thirds of the new faculty in the PSMC Cluster Hire and their labs attended the conference. The Penn State microbiome center is also gearing up for the next Symposium in 2024. The current director of the Microbiome Center attended the first symposium (Seth Bordenstein), and is highly supportive and already initiating planning for the next PSMC Symposium in 2024. The Center hired a permanent staff member (Dr. Nichole Ginnan- a former USDA postdoctoral fellow) who will plan the next Symposium, among other responsibilities. Further in the post-conference survey, all participants indicated that there were now more interested than before in "working at or with the Penn State Microbiome Center"?
Publications
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