Skip to main content
NIH Intramural Research Program, Our Research Changes Lives

Navigation controls

  • Search
  • Menu

Social follow links

  • Podcast
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • What Is the IRP?
    • History
    • Honors
      • Nobel Prize
      • Lasker Award
      • Breakthrough Prize
      • Shaw Prize
      • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
      • Presidential Medal of Freedom
      • National Medal of Science
      • Searle Scholars
      • The National Academy of Sciences
      • The National Academy of Medicine
      • The National Academy of Engineering
      • The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
      • National Medal of Technology & Innovation
      • Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals
      • Crafoord Prize
      • Fellows of the Royal Society
      • Canada Gairdner Awards
    • Organization & Leadership
    • Our Programs
      • NCI
      • NEI
      • NHGRI
      • NHLBI
      • NIA
      • NIAAA
      • NIAID
      • NIAMS
      • NIBIB
      • NICHD
      • NIDA
      • NIDCD
      • NIDCR
      • NIDDK
      • NIEHS
      • NIMH
      • NIMHD
      • NINDS
      • NINR
      • NLM
      • CC
      • NCATS
      • NCCIH
    • Research Campus Locations
    • Contact Information
  • Our Research
    • Scientific Focus Areas
      • Biomedical Engineering & Biophysics
      • Cancer Biology
      • Cell Biology
      • Chemical Biology
      • Chromosome Biology
      • Clinical Research
      • Computational Biology
      • Developmental Biology
      • Epidemiology
      • Genetics & Genomics
      • Health Disparities
      • Immunology
      • Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
      • Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
      • Molecular Pharmacology
      • Neuroscience
      • RNA Biology
      • Social & Behavioral Sciences
      • Stem Cell Biology
      • Structural Biology
      • Systems Biology
      • Virology
    • Principal Investigators
      • View by Investigator Name
      • View by Scientific Focus Area
    • Accomplishments
      • View All Accomplishments by Date
      • View All Health Topics
      • The Body
      • Health & Wellness
      • Conditions & Diseases
      • Procedures
    • Accelerating Science
      • Investing in Cutting-Edge Animal Models
      • Creating Cell-Based Therapies
      • Advancing Computational and Structural Biology
      • Combating Drug Resistance
      • Developing Novel Imaging Techniques
      • Charting the Pathways of Inflammation
      • Zooming in on the Microbiome
      • Uncovering New Opportunities for Natural Products
      • Stimulating Neuroscience Research
      • Pursuing Precision Medicine
      • Unlocking the Potential of RNA Biology and Therapeutics
      • Producing Novel Vaccines
    • Research in Action
      • View All Stories
      • Battling Blood-Sucking Bugs
      • Unexpected Leads to Curb Addiction
      • Shaping Therapies for Sickle Cell Disease
      • The Mind’s Map Maker
    • Trans-IRP Research Resources
      • Supercomputing
    • IRP Review Process
    • Commercializing Inventions
  • NIH Clinical Center
    • Clinical Center Facilities
    • Clinical Faculty
    • Advancing Translational Science
    • Clinical Trials
      • Get Involved with Clinical Research
      • Physician Resources
  • News & Events
    • In the News
    • I am Intramural Blog
    • Speaking of Science Podcast
    • SciBites Video Shorts
    • The NIH Catalyst Newsletter
    • Events
  • Careers
    • Faculty-Level Scientific Careers
    • Trans-NIH Scientific Recruitments
      • Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators
        • Science, the Stadtman Way
      • Lasker Clinical Research Scholars
      • Independent Research Scholar
    • Scientific & Clinical Careers
    • Administrative Careers
  • Research Training
    • Program Information
    • Training Opportunities
    • NIH Work/Life Resources
I am Intramural Blog

NIH Research Festival Buzz

By IRP Staff Blogger

Sunday, November 16, 2014

NIH Research Festival - 2014

Walking around the NIH’s Bethesda Research Campus is a stimulating experience on any day. The cluster of National Institutes and Centers (ICs) within a 1.5-mile radius is a hive of activity, with researchers walking and talking as they move from building to building to use centralized resources, meet with collaborators, or learn the latest in techniques and news from the other ICs.

But during the NIH Research Festival, campus activity levels peak to annual highs as PIs, senior scientists, clinical staff, postdocs and postbacs rush from seminar to seminar, through mazes of posters, and across field-sized exhibitor booths, over a three-day celebration of all things research.

NIH Research Festival - 2014

The NIH Research Festival started in 1986 and has been a high point of the Bethesda campus calendar every year since (except for 1987, when the NIH focused on celebrating its centennial). Each Festival has a theme that runs through the multi-day celebration, and this year was no different, with its focus on the brain. The choice of theme in 2014 was in part due to national attention on the recently-announced BRAIN Initiative, as well as to the sad fact that more Americans will suffer from neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative brain disorders in this century than from any other ailment. It’s clearly time for a call to action to better understand this last frontier of the human body.

As researchers navigated this year’s Festival exhibits, posters, and seminars, it was easy to be struck by the heightened buzz of conversation and the constant stream of introductions—to new people and new technologies.

NIH Research Festival - 2014

Research Festival seminars are almost always followed by a flood of questions—“did you test receptor X too?”, “have you thought about antibody Y?" And with each question comes the almost as excited answer, sometimes (of course) being “we don’t yet know.”

Festival posters are guarded by enthusiastic postbacs and postdocs who are willing to take you through every line of their research, where both their delight and the typical frustrations of science are discussed at length with strangers who may one day become future collaborators.

And of course there are the exhibitors. The 18,000-square-foot exhibitor tent is stuffed full of the latest reagents, plastics, and devices you could ever dream of to support the conduct of science in the labs and clinics.

NIH Research Festival - 2014

Despite the challenges that exist in conducting science today, the Research Festival continues to be a high point where researchers can come together with renewed purpose and spirit. Based on this year’s Festival, it’s apparent that while the stream of science research dollars may be smaller, the stream of good ideas certainly isn’t.


Category: Events
Tags: Research Festival

Related Blog Posts

  • Sharing Science at the NIH Research Festival
  • A New Tool in the Battle Against Depression
  • NIH Research Festival Hosts Postdoc Poster-Palooza
  • It's Time for a Science FARE!
  • What’s Your Science?

This page was last updated on Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Blog menu

  • Contributing Authors
    • Anindita Ray
    • Brandon Levy
    • Devon Valera
    • Melissa Glim
  • Categories
    • IRP Discoveries
    • Profiles
    • Events
    • NIH History
    • IRP Life

Blog links

  • Subscribe to RSS feed

Get IRP Updates

Subscribe

  • Email
  • Print
  • Share Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • What Is the IRP?
    • History
    • Honors
    • Organization & Leadership
    • Our Programs
    • Research Campus Locations
    • Contact Information
  • Our Research
    • Scientific Focus Areas
    • Principal Investigators
    • Accomplishments
    • Accelerating Science
    • Research in Action
    • Trans-IRP Research Resources
    • IRP Review Process
    • Commercializing Inventions
  • NIH Clinical Center
    • Clinical Center Facilities
    • Clinical Faculty
    • Advancing Translational Science
    • Clinical Trials
  • News & Events
    • In the News
    • I am Intramural Blog
    • Speaking of Science Podcast
    • SciBites Video Shorts
    • The NIH Catalyst Newsletter
    • Events
  • Careers
    • Faculty-Level Scientific Careers
    • Trans-NIH Scientific Recruitments
    • Scientific & Clinical Careers
    • Administrative Careers
  • Research Training
    • Program Information
    • Training Opportunities
    • NIH Work/Life Resources
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • National Institutes of Health
  • USA.gov

Footer

  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • IRP Brand Materials
  • HHS Vulnerability Disclosure
  • Web Policies & Notices
  • Site Map
  • Search