HuBMAP Kick-off meeting

HuBMAP Kick-Off Meeting

The kickoff meeting for HuBMAP awardees (Tools, Mapping, Infrastructure, Collaboration, Tissue Mapping Centers, Transformative Technology Development) was held November 29-30, 2018 at the Visual Arts Center in Rockville, MD. This two day face-to-face meeting was attended by 64 awardees, 5 External Program Consultants, and 21 NIH staff members.

The overall goal of the meeting was for the HuBMAP Consortium to gel as a team. Four specific outputs were identified as priorities by the NIH staff and specifically woven into the agenda activities. These were to:

* outline an introductory publication describing the vision for HuBMAP

* establish Working Groups

* define the [tissue-assay-data-analysis] pipeline

* establish a list of Consortium priorities for the upcoming year

Following a warm welcome by NIH staff (Richard Conroy, Zorina Galis, Ajay Pillai), James Anderson (Director, Division of Program Coordination, NIH, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives), and Elizabeth Wilder (Director, Office of Strategic Coordination), NIH). Stavros Michailidis oriented the participants regarding the goals and activities for the meeting, and Donnalyn Roxey provided an introductory activity. Breakout groups whose topics were aligned with the above four goals were convened throughout the two days. All groups additionally prepared feedback for the steering committee and proposed Working Groups. Other groups that met separately included the project managers, the NIH staff with the External Program Consultants, and the NIH staff with the Steering Committee co-chairs. The Consortium was fortunate to be welcomed by Francis Collins (Director, NIH) on Friday.