Villalobos Michele E, Vivanti Giacomo, Jayanath Subhashini, Carpenter Kimberly, Shen Mark D, Shic Frederick, Locke Jill
Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Autism Res. 2025 Apr;18(4):717-724. doi: 10.1002/aur.70028. Epub 2025 Mar 24.
The International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) was established in 2001 with the purpose of providing researchers in the field of autism a specific venue to enhance the quality of multidisciplinary research and elevate the field among the sciences. The autism field and size of the society has now expanded greatly to include over 5000 members, 29% of whom identify as early career researchers. In 2016, a survey was conducted with these early career researchers to identify existing supports and areas of need necessary for a successful and sustained autism research career. Results clearly identified three areas of need: (1) networking opportunities with "change makers," including funding agencies, journal editors, and senior autism researchers; (2) ensuring early career researchers in the autism research field were diverse and representative of the world; and (3) support from senior researchers to help early career researchers secure their first independent grant and move through promotion. The INSAR Early Career Committee (ECC) was established and developed three initiatives to address the aforementioned gaps: Research Rapid Rounds, the Global Representatives Initiative Pilot (GRIP), and the Mentoring Initiative. The ECC has successfully connected over 34 early career researchers and 40 students/trainees to mentors in 19 unique countries through networking programs and events and has established representatives in seven different countries outside the US and UK. These initiatives are a step towards supporting early career academics in the autism field and bring together autism researchers from around the world to share their work and create professional collaborations to forge our field forward.
国际自闭症研究协会（INSAR）成立于2001年，旨在为自闭症领域的研究人员提供一个特定的平台，以提高多学科研究的质量，并提升该领域在科学界的地位。如今，自闭症领域及该协会的规模已大幅扩大，拥有5000多名会员，其中29%为早期职业研究人员。2016年，对这些早期职业研究人员进行了一项调查，以确定成功且持续的自闭症研究生涯所需的现有支持和需求领域。结果明确指出了三个需求领域：（1）与“变革推动者”建立联系的机会，包括资助机构、期刊编辑和资深自闭症研究人员；（2）确保自闭症研究领域的早期职业研究人员具有多样性且能代表全球；（3）获得资深研究人员的支持，以帮助早期职业研究人员获得他们的第一笔独立资助并实现晋升。INSAR早期职业委员会（ECC）成立并制定了三项举措来解决上述差距：研究快速轮次、全球代表倡议试点（GRIP）和指导倡议。通过网络项目和活动，ECC已成功地将34名以上的早期职业研究人员以及40名学生/受训人员与来自19个不同国家的导师建立了联系，并在美国和英国以外的七个不同国家设立了代表。这些举措是朝着支持自闭症领域早期职业学者迈出的一步，汇集了来自世界各地的自闭症研究人员，以分享他们的工作并建立专业合作关系，推动我们的领域向前发展。
