The 2024 Clinical Science Research Grant applications are now closed.

Funding:

The ISSLS Clinical Science Research Grant is sponsored by Medtronic for US$20,000 per year. Research costs, only, will be covered by the award. No salaries or indirect/overhead costs will be covered by the award.

The award will be judged by the Research Grant Committee:

ISSLS Secretary – Daisake Sakai (Chair)
ISSLS President – Kazuhiro Chiba
1st Vice President – Peter Robertson
2nd Vice President – Yong Hai
Scientific Representatives – Hiroshi Hashizume, Karin Wuertz and Sibylle Grad

Proposal Format:

• Background, Identification of Critical Lack of Knowledge, Preliminary Data, Significance, Hypothesis, Specific Aims: 2 page limit

• Detailed Experimental Protocol to achieve each specific aim with expected findings and possible interpretations, pitfalls: 5 page limit

• Further funding plans: 1 page limit

• Reference: No limit

• Brief biography indicating the qualifications to perform the research of Principal Investigator and all Co-investigators (1 page limit per person).

• Curriculum Vitae of Principal Investigator and Co-investigators should be included

• Statement that the applicant, if they win the award and accept the prize money, will attend the ISSLS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, USA 2025 to present their progress report and receive their certificate at the Fellowship Ceremony

E-mail the application documentation as a single PDF document together with the Application Form to the ISSLS Secretariat:  ISSLS@asnevents.net.au

The winner of the 2024 award is required to attend the 2025 Annual Meeting to present their Progress Report. Exceptions to this condition will only be considered in very extraordinary circumstances.

Deadline for submissions: Closed

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2023 CLINICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH GRANT WINNER: FABIO GALBUSERA

The ISSLS Research Grant Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 Clinical Science Research Grant Award is Fabio Galbusera, from the Spine Center, Schulthess Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr Galbusera will attend the 2024 ISSLS Annual Meeting in Milan, where he will present his Progress Report at the Fellowship Awards Ceremony.

Title: Estimating Bone Mineral Density from Conventional MRI with Deep Learning

Congratulations to Dr Galbusera and his team for an outstanding submission.

Previous winners (previously the ISSLS Research Grant sponsored by Taisho Pharmaceutical):

• 2022: Dr Frances Bach, Utrecht University, Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, The Netherlands, was awarded the Research Grant. As she has now left that institution, Josette van Maanen has continued the project and presented her progress report at the Fellowship Ceremony of the ISSLS Annual Meeting, combined with Spineweek, in Melbourne, Australia.
  Title: The effect of notochordal extracellular vesicles on human and bovine nucleus pulpous explants. Read Report

• 2020: Dr Graciosa P. Teixeira, Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany. Title: Does complement deficiency influence intervertebral disc phenotype? Insights from C6 and CD59 deficient mice organ culture investigations. Read Report

• 2019: Dr Olga Krupkova, Laboratory for Immunoengineering and Regenerative Medicine, Zurich, Switzerland. Title: “Cell-based delivery of GDF-5 for regeneration of the intervertebral disc using CRISPR”. Read Report Due to the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Meeting, this report will be available following the 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting.

• 2018: Hugo Massé-Alarie, The University of Queensland, Australia. Read Final Report, Read Progress Report