Conferences

Each year, more than 100 outstanding researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds are invited to attend the annual RIMR Conference. At RIMR conferences, participants from very different backgrounds and disciplines work together to discuss the major challenges and opportunities in AMD research and generate new ideas and solutions to overcome the roadblocks preventing us from eliminating vision loss due to AMD.

The conference format is an innovative process designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and progress. Significant pre-conference preparation is provided, including tutorials to introduce topics and familiarize participants with the language of disciplines other than their own, ensuring that their time at the conference will be optimally productive and professionally meaningful.

During the conference, participants break into task groups to work on specific scientific challenges that represent the most current unresolved questions and obstacles related to dry AMD. The culmination of the conference is a session in which a representative of each task group presents a summary of their group’s discussions and findings, and recommends studies that would address the research obstacles identified by that group. The task group topics are carefully chosen by a rotating executive committee based on the feedback collected from RIMR participants after each meeting. The executive committee extends invitations to scientists whose expertise is most relevant to the topics developed.

The conference format provides a wealth of opportunities to build relationships, exchange ideas, and share new perspectives. It is not a traditional scientific meeting — it is part of a larger process leading to tangible results. Indeed, the RIMR meeting has spawned 100’s of new research collaborations leading to 100s of millions of dollars in new federal funding, and many 100’s of publications.