Welcome to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Annual Principal Investigators Meeting! This year's theme, Relevance & Rigor: Creating the Future of Education Research, was selected to underscore IES' commitment to supporting high-quality scientific research that will advance education practice and policy by sharing information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public. Our Co-Chairs for this year's PI meeting – Betsy Corcoran (EdSurge), Jodi Davenport (WestEd), and Nathan Jones (Boston University) – have provided invaluable, forward-thinking suggestions to help select the theme, plan sessions, and identify speakers for this meeting. We are grateful for their contributions.

Our goal for the PI meeting is to strengthen our collective work by fostering discussion and renewing or building connections among the nearly 800 PIs, Co-PIs, and training fellows currently supported by IES. Specific objectives include:

• Addressing emerging challenges and solutions in the field of education research and practice;
• Spotlighting new research findings and methodological approaches from IES-funded projects;
• Offering professional development on a range of substantive and methodological topics;
• Providing time for PIs to meet with their NCER and NCSER program officers and other researchers working on similar problems or issues; and
• Fostering connections between IES fellows and others who may be seeking new research or career opportunities, and individuals who want to build new partnerships or fill open positions.

With continuous improvement in mind, we integrated feedback from last year's PI Meeting to help shape this year's agenda. We are providing more opportunities for attendees to connect with one another across traditional lines of academic discipline and institution. We will continue to provide opportunities for learning about research methodologies and dissemination strategies, and will spotlight the innovative work of our postdoctoral fellows and early career grantees in the poster session. Finally, we have adjusted the date of the PI Meeting so that it comes after the Winter holidays, which we hope will be a more convenient time and create fewer scheduling conflicts.

Thank you for your participation. We are looking forward to seeing you – and to a great meeting!

Thomas Brock, NCER Commissioner, Delegated the Duties of IES Director & Joan McLaughlin, NCSER Commissioner