Scholarship Program - will re-open in the fall of 2019
Aim: To provide enriched international and national exchange that will foster the acquisition of skills in specialized scientific methodologies, knowledge translation, and dissemination of research. The scholarship will also provide educational, networking and partnership opportunities with preference to those in early career research.
Candidates: Members of OARSI.
Scholarship Amount: Multiple Scholarships of up to $6500 (USD) each.
Places for Rotation: Institutions with experience in OA Research (Basic/Clinical).
Training Rotations: The award will support up to a six month visit for graduate students and fellows. Trainees are required to submit an abstract and present their work at the OARSI meeting in 2021.
For a list of possible hosts see the OARSI website, click here. Your host does NOT have to come from this list.
If you would like to become a host, please click here to complete the host application.
All types of OA research are included in this program: basic, clinical, translational, and experimental.
This is an online process. Once a login is created, all information and documents submitted to the online application will be saved and accessible for completion at a later date.
Criteria:
All applications will be evaluated based on project, impact and benefit for training program for the candidate, interdisclinary collaboration, international, national/country, and regional/state collaboration, and relevance to OARSI and osteoarthritis research.
Previous scholarship winners are NOT eligible to re-apply.
Application Instructions
Before starting the application please have the following documents ready for upload. A complete application includes:
Supervisor OR host must be an OARSI member-not necessarily both.
Summary, experimental plan (max 5 pages).
Previous winners may not re-submit an application
Letter from the host indicating support for the proposed research plan and describing the elective rotation’s expected benefits and outcome(s); Include resources/infrastructure at the host institution that will facilitate achieving the aims of the rotation.
Letter from the applicant’s home supervisor explaining the benefit of the exchange for the trainee and for establishing ongoing collaborations with the host Institution.
Short CV of the applicant, CV must be short and no longer than 2-4 pages including publications, and must include relevance to project.
Special consideration for one of the scholarships will be given to a candidate from an emerging country with an GDP country rank of 50 or greater, where the scholarship would have a clear impact on advancing osteoarthritis research strength in the home country of the applicant. The application still has to meet the appropriate standards of excellence.
Please contact Priscilla Lugo with any questions at info@oarsi.org or Telephone: +1-856-642-4215
Evaluation of the Scholarship Applications
The eight members of the OARSI Research and Training Committee are responsible for reviewing the scholarship applications.
The current scoring matrix for the scholarship applications includes evaluating the:
project, the impact and benefit for the applicant
the type of collaboration (regional, national, international),
track record and suitability of the candidate and the track record and suitability of the host,
relevance of the project to the OARSI strategic goals.
A final score for each application is provided by each assessor and we use the mean score from all assessors to rank the applicants.
Decision date: February 2020
What makes an application stand out amongst the others?
A project with clear and achievable research goals and timelines is obviously important. Most projects will be on a suitable topic and most will make cogent arguments regarding the importance of the disease to be studied, usually OA, and the importance of the particular aspect that is the focus of the scholarship. Given that these are travelling scholarships, it is important to make a compelling case as to why travel of the scholarship applicant to a given site and host is necessary (as it is the travel that is being funded). Could the research and collaboration be done as effectively without the travel – e.g. electronically? What is unique about the proposed host institution, such that the research could not be done by the applicant without the visit? In funding the scholarship will OARSI be helping to establish a new collaboration that otherwise would not happen? Will the new collaboration arising from the scholarship value add to the career and research capability of the applicant (and ideally their home institution) when they return after the scholarship.