Abstract The 8th installment of the Midwest Auditory Research Conference (MARC) will take place at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois from July 11-13, 2019. We expect ~150 energized auditory and vestibular scientists from a broad swath of the country to visit the home town of Abe Lincoln. The goals of this meeting are to foster collaborations among basic, clinical, and translational hearing/vestibular scientists and to provide an inexpensive opportunity for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to present their work as posters or talks. MARC 2019 focus areas conform to the mission of the NIDCD including: Inner ear development; Vestibular hair cell regeneration; Hidden hearing loss; Synaptic transmission between hair cells and neurons; Age-related hearing loss; Central auditory function/dysfunction/plasticity; Mechanisms of tinnitus; and Improving speech understanding across all populations of ages. To this end, confirmed keynote speakers include: Gabriel Corfas-University of Michigan, Judy Dubno-Medical University of South Carolina, Paul Fuchs-Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Andy Groves-Baylor College of Medicine, Nina Kraus-Northwestern University, Dan Polley-Harvard Medical School, Jenny Stone-University of Washington, and Thanos Tzounopoulos- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. MARC 2019 will provide an informal setting that encourages graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to discuss their work amongst each other, and with nationally regarded Principal Investigators. Sessions will include a broad mix of talks that focus on peripheral and central auditory neuroscience, therefore encouraging attendance across the spectrum of auditory/vestibular research. We also plan to include a Friday night event at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum with an engaging keynote speaker as part of the MARC meeting. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will be selected for travel awards with registration waivers, based on the quality and relevance of their abstracts. Selected abstracts from trainees and early stage investigators will be given preference for talks that are slotted into the keynote appropriately themed sessions. Since we anticipate that greater than half of the attendees will be trainees, MARC 2019 will also include a career development session where strategies to improve grant writing will be discussed in a round table format.