ORAU’s 2024 Annual Meeting featured three keynote speakers and four panel discussions.
While STEM education is a focus of ORAU’s mission throughout the year, there’s an intentional push during the summer as teachers and students are out of school and may have time to participate in enrichment programs. Our K-12 team works hard to offer a full slate of opportunities for both educators looking for professional development and students who want to sharpen skills. But our passion for STEM goes beyond programming—we’re invested in strategizing and facilitating conversations to move the needle on results nationwide. How can we encourage more people to pursue STEM careers? This year, ORAU’s Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions centered its gathering around the concept of redefining the next generation STEM enterprise. To understand how that meeting advanced our STEM mission, let me explain this annual meeting through the five Ws.
Who
In the corporate world, just about every company has an annual rah-rah leadership gathering. I know you know what I’m talking about: leaders from every department get together to review goals and talk about where they’re headed, and it usually includes food and a keynote speaker. Go team!
The Council of Sponsoring Institutions, is a formal body of ORAU, which is a non-profit organization. The annual meeting is designed specifically for ORAU’s consortium members. If I just lost you, check out this blog that explains what our consortium is. This meeting is an opportunity to bring together those consortium members with ORAU employees, as well as some invited industry and government agency leaders. The meeting features keynote speakers and panelists representing academia, federal agencies, private industry and national organizations.
During ORAU’s Annual Meeting, panelists share ideas and experiences to inspire others.
What
Now that you understand it’s a meeting for consortium members, let’s dig into that a little further. Providing opportunities to network with federal agency partners, industry leaders and each other is one way the Research and University Partnerships Office (RUPO) offers value to consortium members. Additionally, the RUPO team works year-round to facilitate connections for our universities to work with government agencies, national labs and industry partners on projects they’re passionate about. They gain exposure, experience and resources for their universities, faculty and students. Through ORAU’s consortium, members get to work through issues they want to impact, and they are able to network/brainstorm with people who are interested in similar opportunities.
ORAU’s Annual Meeting offers opportunities to network with other consortium members as well as industry representatives.
With that in mind, think of ORAU’s Annual Meeting as a melding of the minds, a think tank and an alignment meeting. Every year, RUPO designates a theme on which the meeting will focus. It’s essentially a forum to discuss emerging topics of interest to both ORAU and our universities. This year, we discussed the future of the STEM workforce and how we can keep the United States competitive on the world stage. In 2025, we’ll be talking about advanced manufacturing. Stay tuned!
ORAU’s Annual Meeting is also a time to recognize and present some of the amazing projects our teams have researched. Specifically, these are ORAU-Directed Research and Development projects, where an ORAU subject matter expert is paired with a researcher from a consortium member institution to research a topic of interest for both parties that aligns with ORAU’s research priorities. Through poster sessions, ORAU subject matter experts share their project and inspire others to apply for funding to make their own discoveries. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. As a leader in advancing science, health and education, we understand that collaboration is key.
ORAU’s Davyda Hammond (right) participates in poster session, encouraging collaboration.
For me, one of the most exciting aspects of this meeting is the open mic. The meeting this year featured three keynote sessions and four panel discussions. Before the conclusion of each segment, the floor was open for anyone to engage the speakers and panelists with questions and comments. It was fun to see what the consortium members were ruminating on and the excitement that spread from the event throughout the two days.
An open mic at the end of each keynote presentation and panel discussion fosters alliance mindset as well as openness.
Where
Our council members hail from all over the United States. See the map below! For years, we invited all our consortium members to meet us on our Oak Ridge, Tenn., campus. It’s important to bring our universities back to where it all began. We’ve even held this meeting at Oak Ridge National Lab before. We’re intentional to keep our consortium connected to our roots while we look forward to the future of science and technology. As we grow, we adjust with larger conference space in new locations.
ORAU’s consortium includes subject matter experts from across the U.S.
When
We hold this meeting at the beginning of March, which has typically been a good time for people to travel and join us.
Why
Of the five Ws, I find the “why” the most compelling piece of information. So, why does ORAU’s annual meeting look a little different than most organizations’ meetings? At the end of the day, conversations lead to action steps, and those action steps lead to advancement. We know it’s not just about ORAU. We’re a non-profit on a mission to advance science, health and education in the United States. Our annual meeting brings relevant topics and challenges to the forefront and provides a format for valuable discussion. It’s going to take all players’ participation: higher education, industry, government and beyond. Bringing everyone together for that purpose is our passion. Read about the meeting’s key takeaways here.
ORAU’s Annual Meeting brings together representatives from higher education, industry, government and beyond.