Sarah Dykstra, Tony Cijsouw, and Swetha Murali

The Boston Postdoctoral Association (BPDA) is a 17-member consortium of academic and industry postdoctoral associations (PDAs) representing 8,000 postdoctoral scholars from the greater Boston area. Founded in 2013 by postdocs from Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the BPDA today has grown to include PDAs from Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and postdocs from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). The BPDA’s mission is to advocate for the needs of postdoctoral scholars across three main areas: advocacy, professional development, and social/networking needs.

The last several NPA Annual Meetings have provided a wonderful platform to network, learn best practices, discover innovative programming, and meet key opinion leaders in the postdoctoral community. While leaders of individual Boston-area PDAs had been meeting as members of the BPDA council since its founding, the NPA Annual Meeting provided a unique opportunity for Boston area postdoctoral leaders to strengthen their professional relationships, form collaborations with leaders of other Boston-area PDAs and learn from the many postdoctoral officers who attended the Annual Meeting.

The 14^th NPA Annual Meeting marked a crucial point in the expansion and development of the BPDA as a regional powerhouse in the Boston area. Inspired by a series of NPA workshops on regional collaboration, PDA leaders from Boston developed a broad strategic plan, and then approached the Boston area postdoc officers in attendance to build an initial PDA-officer collaboration. In subsequent months after the preliminary assembly at the Annual Meeting, the BPDA launched several significant initiatives. First, the BPDA strengthened its relationships with area officers by hosting a semi-annual “PDO-PDA” meeting to share news and improve regional collaborations resulting in improved communication and event sharing between institutions. Second, after meeting postdocs from the NIBR, the BPDA welcomed its first industry postdoc group as a BPDA member organization.  Third, in collaboration with Jonathan Yen, a leader of the NIBR postdoc group, Sarah Dykstra, Co-President of the Tufts PDA, and Swetha Murali, the Co-President of the Boston Children’s Hospital PDA, the first annual BPDA career development symposium was conceived in 2016 and launched to great fanfare in 2017.

In 2017, the BPDA was officially represented at the NPA Annual Meeting for the first time. The Annual Meeting gave the BPDA a unique opportunity to present two posters by the members of the Career Development and Advocacy Committees. The first detailed the role of the BPDA as a model for a regional PDA and the second presented a comprehensive view of postdoctoral salaries and benefits in the Boston area. The latter was created in collaboration with the region’s postdoc officers by sharing benefits from 13 individual Boston-area research institutions. This generated stimulating conversations about working conditions for postdocs across the United States and served as inspiration to other regional PDA groups to consider similar efforts, prompting several excellent discussions amongst the growing number of regional PDAs who were present at the NPA. Additionally, postdoc officers from across the country provided thoughtful guidance on how to advocate at a national level for improved postdoctoral training.

The BPDA had the opportunity to connect with other regional groups of PDAs during the 15^th NPA Annual Meeting, including those from Chicago, New York, and California. The Annual Meeting provided a platform to share resources, discuss innovative programming, collaborate across regions and effectively address shared regional issues. As each of these regional groups have differing strengths, the NPA Annual Meeting offered an excellent chance to share best practices during workshops and while viewing the posters of other PDAs. These multiple opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from other PDAs offered the BPDA valuable strategic guidance and resources, while also providing the opportunity to share our experience with developing groups and funding opportunities for multiple PDAs.

Finally, attending the NPA Annual Meeting has presented an excellent opportunity to discover organizations interested in supporting postdoctoral scholar’s training needs, such as the American Chemical Society, the NIH Loan Forgiveness Program and the Future of Research. As a result of connections made at the NPA Annual Meeting, both the American Chemical Society and NIH Loan Forgiveness Program have presented seminars to the Boston postdoc community. Several BPDA members also attended the Future of Research meeting that coincided with the NPA Annual Meeting, which resulted in an ongoing BPDA-FoR partnership to create content for developing leadership and mentoring skills for postdocs. BPDA representatives also used last year’s NPA Annual Meeting as a valuable opportunity to network with the invited guests to the BPDA symposium, as well as develop additional contacts for future regional events.

Attending the NPA Annual Meeting in past years has helped the BPDA learn of novel programming through NPA-hosted workshops and poster sessions, meet new partners through event booths and networking events, and develop relationships with postdoc officers, research administrators and industry partners. The goals of the BPDA this year are to reach out to regional associations and again to postdoc officers, in particular, to hold brainstorming sessions to cross-pollinate ideas and bring suggestions for novel programming and initiatives back to our members. The last two NPA Annual Meetings have been very productive for the BPDA to develop our goals and vision. We look forward to the 2018 NPA Annual Conference being a similar catalyst for new ideas for the BPDA.

Sarah Dykstra PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Tufts University in the McVey Lab, the Co-President of the Tufts PDA and the Co-Chair of the BPDA Career Development Committee.

Tony Cijsouw, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar Tufts University in the Biederer Lab, the Co-President of the Tufts PDA and the Co-Chair of the BPDA Advocacy Committee.

Swetha Murali, PhD, is a former Postdoctoral Scholar at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Holt Lab, and the Co-Chair of the BPDA Career Development Committee.

All images courtesy of the BPDA.