42nd National Neurotrauma Society (NNS) Annual Symposium 2025 - Ringing in Team Science - Abstract Neurotrauma, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI), impacts over 60 million people per year globally with an estimated fiscal burden of $400 B/year. The National Neurotrauma Society (NNS) is committed to the promotion of neurotrauma research by enhancing communication, providing a forum for scientific exchange, and increasing national and international support for neurotrauma research and clinical advances. Our Annual Symposium provides a forum for researchers, clinicians, and trainees from around the world to meet and discuss the latest breakthroughs to improve the lives of individuals living with TBI and SCI related disability. The 42nd Annual Neurotrauma Symposium, jointly sponsored by the NNS and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (AANS/CNS) Joint Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care will be held in Philadelphia, PA, June 15 - June 18, 2025. This meeting will focus on showcasing the latest technological innovations in the neurotrauma field while celebrating the foundational biomedical research that continues to influence emerging knowledge and tools to improve neurotrauma research and clinical care. Broad objectives of the Symposium include: 1) updating attendees on current and timely topics in basic and clinical neurotrauma, 2) facilitating exchange of information among participants, 3) building new scientific collaborations, with a foundation in rigor, reproducibility, transparency, and translation, and 4) fostering active engagement of trainees and young investigators through our travel awards, poster competition, data blitz oral presentations, workshops and activities developed and supported by the Training, Education and Mentoring (TEAM) Committee. Recent NIH R13 funding has enhanced our ability to train, mentor and facilitate attendance for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, residents, and young investigators. This application seeks funding to support 20 travel awards for pre-and-postdoctoral trainees, and an additional 10 travel awards to pre- and-postdoctoral trainees who meet the NIH definition of historically underrepresented in the biological sciences. These awards will allow trainees to present their ongoing work, attend scientific sessions, and to network and build collaborations with peers and faculty. In addition, we request support for programming for trainee and young investigator development sessions, sponsored by the TEAM Committee. Finally, we request support to continue our unique Local Scholars Program, successfully initiated in 2022, which provides support for undergraduate students who come from under-served backgrounds and who attend local universities to attend the NNS Symposium and receive specific training to promote interest in careers in neurotrauma and neuroscience research. Along with showcasing the best of our research over the last year, our goal is to create an inclusive and equitable environment, where trainees and faculty alike feel like they belong. In this way we hope to be able to better recruit, better train, and better retain the next generation of translational neuroscientists in the NNS.
