The 12th Young Investigators’ Meeting (YIM 2020) was held in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, from 14 to 18 February, 2020 and was attended by nearly eighty young researchers, in addition to several senior scientists, institutional representatives, guest speakers, and panellists. This article is the first in a two-part series reporting on its proceedings.

Since their inception in 2009, the Young Investigators’ Meetings (YIMs) have been bringing together bright young researchers on a dedicated platform for networking, collaboration and mentorship. With YIM 2020 just around the corner, we decided to look up some of the past attendees and ask them about the impact that YIMs have had on their scientific journeys. This is the second of two articles compiling their stories.

Since their inception in 2009, the Young Investigators’ Meetings (YIMs) have been bringing together bright young researchers on a dedicated platform for networking, collaboration and mentorship. With YIM 2020 just around the corner, we decided to look up some of the past attendees and ask them about the impact that YIMs have had on their scientific journeys. This is the first of two articles compiling their stories.

The 12th Young Investigators' Meeting is going to be held at Mahabalipuram from 14 - 18 February. We asked the organisers of YIM 2020 (Athi N Naganathan, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, Aravindhan Vivekanandhan, University of Madras, Smita Jain, IndiaBioscience) a few questions about the upcoming meeting. Here is what they had to say.

During the 10th Young Investigators' Meeting (YIM), a need was felt for stronger local networks within the Indian scientific fraternity. Following the success of Regional Young Investigators' Meetings in Kolkata and Hyderabad, the third Regional YIM was held in Delhi NCR. The meeting followed the motto - "Unite, collaborate for a better tomorrow" and gathered scientific minds from throughout the National Capital Region.