International Society of Bone Morphometry (ISBM) 2024 Meeting - Project Summary This proposal is a request to support the 16th International Society of Bone Morphometry meeting (ISBM2024), which will provide a platform to discuss the latest development in skeletal imaging and analysis and provide workshop sessions. This meeting will take place on September 30 – October 3, 2023 at the Chestnut Conference Centre at University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada), immediately following the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Annual Meeting (September 27 – 30, 2023, Toronto, Canada). The goal of ISBM2024 is to provide a forum that discusses both conventional and novel morphometry-based approaches, organize training workshops lead by academic and industry experts, enhance training experience and career development of junior investigators, and promote scientists from underrepresented groups. Since its inception, ISBM meetings have always fostered collaboration, discussion of scientific data, and training for a diverse range of basic, translational, and clinical scientists from around the world using morphometry-based approaches. In ISBM2024, in addition to the discussion of scientific progress by researchers, the meeting will seek to address emerging challenges in bone morphometry, such as the need to establish or update guidelines on new bone morphometry approaches, dissemination of knowledge, protocol, and large data sets, and the lack of participation from underrepresented groups. The proposed conference plan is carefully developed to address these challenges, and composed of eight scientific sessions, networking hours, social events, and training workshops. The topics of eight scientific sessions cover both basic and clinical aspects of skeletal imaging and morphometry. New to this meeting, which traditionally has only provided training sessions in bone morphometry, a presentation and discussion on open access and science in musculoskeletal research will precede prior to training workshops. We anticipate the attendance of the ISBM2024 meeting to be 100 – 150 participants. Funds are requested to cover travel awards for young investigators and trainees, costs of the conference venue, and to support travel and accommodations for invited speakers. We anticipate ISBM2024 to provide a forum to present and discuss the latest morphometry approaches, train junior investigators, discuss guidelines for bone morphometry techniques to advance the rigor and reproducibility, and promote inclusion of underrepresented groups. The conference will foster a greater understanding of existing challenges and potential path forward to future research to enhance rigor and reproducibility in bone morphometry.
