Participant Support for Biomechanists Outlining New Directions Workshop (USA and Italy: BOND); Naples, Italy; 24-27 September 2023

This award provides registration and travel support for trainees and early-stage investigators from the USA to attend the USA and Italy: Biomechanists Outlining New Directions (U&I: BOND) workshop, which will be held 24-27 September 2023 in Naples, Italy. This workshop is hosted jointly with organizers across Italy and will take place in the Aula Magna of the Federico Secondo University of Naples. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers from the USA and Italy, with diverse cultural and research backgrounds, who are working in experimental, theoretical, and computational biomechanics across different length scales. The workshop will advance the field of biomechanics while providing career and professional development opportunities. In addition to the engagement of participants from a diversity of institutions and biomechanics specialties, the funding support will target attendees and speakers from under-represented groups in STEM. The workshop is designed to encourage formation of peer-peer and junior-senior mentoring relationships to increase the retention and inclusion of underrepresented trainees and junior faculty in engineering. The workshop attendees of all career levels will gain valuable conceptual knowledge and technical skills in biomechanics. The workshop will facilitate the transfer of knowledge across disciplines and the development of long-term connections between experts in two different countries. It will enhance the current and future research infrastructure from the learned technical skills, the formation of productive partnerships, and the creation of novel technologies and scientific solutions. The knowledge-building, technology-advancing, network-broadening, and partnership-generating outcomes of the workshop will accelerate scientific progress and medical discovery through biomechanics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.