ENAR Team Science Award in Biostatistics

 

Committee Chair - Christina Kendziorski Newton, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Committee Members - Wei Chen, University of Pittsburgh; Zhen Chen, NIH/NICHD; Wenting Cheng, Biogen Inc.; Mingyao Li, University of Pennsylvania; Fang Chen, SAS
Ex Officio Member - Nandita Mitra, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The ENAR Team Science Award in Biostatistics is a new award established to honor collaborative groups whose collective efforts have advanced scientific knowledge through the innovative application of biostatistics. This award recognizes interdisciplinary teams whose work exemplifies the power of collaboration in addressing complex scientific and societal challenges and highlights the essential contribution of biostatistics/biostatisticians to the process.

Eligibility

Teams from academia, industry, and government where statistical contributions are critical, valued and highlighted will be considered. Teams must include at least one team member who is a current ENAR member. The nomination should also include at least one non-statistician member of the team who is a domain science expert. Ideally, the team should represent multiple scientific domains and demonstrate sustained collaboration over time. There is no limit on the number of team members included in the nomination, but nominations should clearly define the team and its scope of work.

Award Criteria

• Collaborative Innovation: Demonstrated success in conducting interdisciplinary research that integrates and recognizes biostatistics in impactful and innovative ways.
• Scientific Impact: Contributions that have advanced knowledge in public health, medicine, biology, or related fields through team-based research where the role of biostatistics is critical and acknowledged by the team.
• Leadership and Influence: Evidence of leadership in promoting team science, including fostering an inclusive and effective collaborative environment where the contribution and leadership of biostatisticians are respected, valued and celebrated.
• Capacity Building: Activities that demonstrate mentoring, training, and support of junior researchers in both domain science and data science within a team science environment.

Examples of qualifying achievements include but are not limited to:

• Development of novel statistical approaches that enable scientific discovery.
• Cross-disciplinary projects with clear evidence of integration and synergy.
• Team-based research resulting in widely adopted tools, methods, patents, apps, or public resources.
• Contribution to drug discovery, FDA approval, shaping regulatory guidelines.
• Influencing policy through data-driven evidence and decision-making.
• Co-creation of a new large cohort or initiative with exemplar partnership between data science and domain science experts.

Submission Requirements
Nominations must include:

• A CV or NIH biosketch for each team member.
• A nomination letter (up to 3 pages) describing the team’s collaborative achievement and addressing the award criteria. Self-nominations are encouraged.
• One additional letter of support from a collaborator or external stakeholder may be provided (optional)

Award Ceremony

The award will be presented at the ENAR 2027 Spring Meeting in Boston, MA. At least two representatives from the winning team (one in biostatistics, one in domain science) are expected to attend and accept the award in person. ENAR will waive registration costs for these two members. There will also be a special invited session during the meeting featuring the work of the team at the ENAR Spring Meeting.

Nominations open annually on September 1st and close on October 15th.