The 2018 conference is scheduled for Nov 2-3, 2018, in Fayetteville, with keynote speaker Professor Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College.

The Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Arkansas INBRE) is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The IDeA program was established for the purpose of broadening the geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research.

The Arkansas INBRE builds on the successful Arkansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) program that was established in 2001 under a grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The Arkansas BRIN established a statewide network that links Arkansas institutions of higher education to establish a statewide infrastructure in support of a growing effort to build a biomedical research capacity in Arkansas.