Applications Open for the 2026 Clinical Science Research Grant on 15 October.

Description: The research proposal should be in the field of clinical science. At least one investigator must be a current ISSLS member. The research proposal will be judged on significance, quality of the hypothesis, experimental protocol and feasibility. Projects that intend to use the ISSLS funding to lead to other larger funding sources are encouraged but must have a strong plan for further funding. The winning proposal will receive a US$20,000.00 award. The principal investigator must be 45 years of age or younger. The research funds cannot be used as a salary for any of the investigators. The recipient will provide a written progress report to the Research Grant Committee, four weeks prior to the following year’s Annual Meeting and make a presentation during the Fellowship Ceremony of that Annual Meeting.

The announcement of the 2026 winner will be made at the ISSLS Annual Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, May 11-15 2026, during the Fellowship Ceremony. At the same Fellowship Meeting, the winner of the 2025 Research Grant will make their presentation.

The winner of the 2026 award is required to attend the 2027 Annual Meeting. Exceptions to this condition will only be considered in very extraordinary circumstances.

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 – Daisuke Sakai (Chair) & Secretary Elect - Dino Samartzis
ISSLS President – Yong Hai
1st Vice President – Jeffrey Lotz
2nd Vice President – Hans-Joachim Wilke
Scientific Representatives – Sibylle Grad, Koichi Sairyo & Donna Ohnmeiss

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 Cape Town, South Africa 2026 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

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2025 CLINICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH GRANT WINNER: DAVID KLYNE

The ISSLS Research Grant Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Clinical Science Research Grant Award (sponsored by Medtronic) is David Klyne, from the University of Queensland, Australia.

David will attend the 2025 ISSLS Annual Meeting in Cape Town, where he will present his Progress Report at the Fellowship Awards Ceremony.

Title: Uncovering the role of sleep in back pain in the real world.

Congratulations to David Klyne and his team for an outstanding submission.

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Previous winner (sponsored by Medtronic):

• 2024: Luca Ambrosio & Jordy Schol, from Tokai University School of Medicine, Japan.

  Title: The “forgotten spine” as the ultimate goal in fusion surgery: towards the development of a patient-centered outcome measure. Read Report

• 2023: Dr Fabio Galbusera, from the Spine Center, Schulthess Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland.

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

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