Travel Scholarship Program
The aim of the OARSI Scholarship program is 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.
Please click here to submit your application.
Applications for 2025 travel scholarships must be received no later than January 10, 2025 for consideration.
Candidates: Members of OARSI.
Scholarship Amount: Multiple Scholarships of up to $7,000 (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 next OARSI World Congress.
For a list of possible hosts 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 and all information and documents should be ready to submit in one entry.
Criteria:
All applications will be evaluated based on project, impact and benefit for training program for the candidate, interdisciplinary collaboration, international, national/country, and regional/state collaboration, and relevance to OARSI and osteoarthritis research.
The candidate must be an OARSI member fulfilling the Early Career Investigator definition. An ECI must be either enrolled in an undergraduate/graduate program (or equivalent education program) or must have attained their terminal degree (e.g., PhD or equivalent) less than ten years ago. Exceptions are made for leave related to career disruptions (e.g., parental or sick leave) or full-time clinical work. The individual must not hold an Associate/Full Professor (or equivalent; tenured) position. Preferably the host should be an OARSI member (exceptions may apply). The host institution must have experience in OA research or methods that can be transferred to OA research.
Scholars traveling from low and low-middle income countries are particularly encouraged to submit an application.
Previous scholarship recipients are NOT eligible to re-apply.
Application Instructions
Before starting the application please have the following documents ready for upload. A complete application includes:
- Research Project Plan Summary and Research Relevance
- Supervisor OR host must be an OARSI member-not necessarily both.
- 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 no longer than 3 pages including publications, and must include relevance to project.
- Budget: explanation of the estimated costs for your visit.
Please click here to submit your application.
You must be logged in to submit your application. Previous winners may not re-submit an application.
Please contact Summer Culkin with any questions at info@oarsi.org or Telephone: +1-856-642-4215
Evaluation of the Scholarship Applications
The 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.
- Weighted score will be given to candidates from low and low-middle income countries.
- The same host institution may only host one scholar per year.
A final score for each application is provided by each assessor and the mean score from all assessors is used to rank the applicants.
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?
See the list of previous scholarship recipients and read about their travel scholar experiences here.