Invited Symposium I: “Training Our Next Generation Scientific Work Force to Tackle Grand Challenges”

Social work’s historic articulation of current Grand Challenges sharpens the imminent need to coordinate a national plan for preparing our doctoral students and early career scholars for high impact careers toward advancing solutions. In this session we convene a national panel to provide interlocking illustrations of research skill and career readiness needs of emerging scholars who will largely be responsible for taking Grand Challenges forward, within contemporary scientific contexts.  This session builds on prior task forces within and outside of social work to delineate the top tasks social work must attend to over the coming decade to prepare our next generation of researchers for leadership in the era of Grand Challenges. This session will include engagement with the audience and should be of interest to a very wide swath of SSWR participants—from doctoral students to early career and senior faculty to school leadership. This vision will include creative attention to linking resources across schools of social work as well as SSWR’s pivotal support roles.