VWFB e.V. announces the 2024 ENIGMA Young Investigator Prize      (ENIGMA YIP)

VWFB e.V. (Verein für wissenschaftliche Fachtagungen in der Biomedizin) is a charity organization hosting scientific conferences in the life sciences. Focussing on vascular and tumor biology, the International Kloster Seeon meeting series was established by VWFB in 2005. On the occasion of the 13th International Kloster Seeon meeting “Angioscience”, VWFB announces the

ENIGMA Young Investigator Prize (ENIGMA YIP)

to be awarded to a junior scientist to enable him/her to host a small, closed, high-profile, and informal think-tank meeting with 20 to 25 participants on an ENIGMAtic life science topic of his/her choice in Heidelberg, Germany (head-quarter of VWFB). VWFB thereby wants to encourage young scientists to develop bold ideas and hypotheses in emerging fields of contemporary life science research and to discuss such ideas with a small and dedicated group of scientists. The mixed audience should consist of the leaders in the field, emerging new leaders and high potential junior scientists for a maximum of synergy and intellectual challenge. The prize money (15.000 €) is intended as seed money to cover room and board of the conference participants for an envisioned 3 days / 2 nights meeting (i.e. 2 half days and 1 full day of meeting) as well as a limited support for travel expenses (i.e., additional funds may need to be secured to cover all expenses or some travel expenses may have to be covered by the participants).

 

Eligibility: “Junior Scientist” is defined according to the eligibility criteria of the ERC Starting Grants (i.e., PhD [or equiv.] plus 7 years [no earlier than April 30, 2017] – the usual eligibility extension criteria apply [maternity leave, etc.]).

Scientific focus: The ENIGMA YIP is looking for ambitious young scientists to develop bold and novel ideas in emerging fields of science to enable them to establish a forum in which such novel ideas can be openly discussed (format of a think-tank meeting). VWFB is rooted in vascular and tumor biology research. Yet, applications from any field of life science will be considered. Selection criteria will be scientific strength, excite-ment and novelty.

Application: Your application should consist of (i) a cover letter briefly outlining the scientific concept and why your proposal should be selected, (ii) the description of the proposed think-tank meeting [thematic outline; justification of why you think that your topic in particular is timely, important and emerging; list of prospective participants including up to 8 prospective keynote speakers (don’t have to be confirmed yet), discussion formats (max. 3 pages)], and (iii) your CV [2 pages] – all compiled in a single PDF.

Deadline: The deadline for applications is April 30, 2024.

Submission: Please send your application to: administration@vwfb.de.

Selection and announcement: Following preliminary screening by the VWFB Board of Directors, a limited number of applications will be sent out for comparative peer review. The awardee will be selected by July 31, 2024. He/she will be invited to this year’s Kloster Seeon Meeting “Angioscience” (Sept. 21-24, 2024), where the prize will be announced and the awardee will be given the opportunity to present his/her ENIGMA YIP think-tank meeting.

 

 

The ENIGMA YIP and its history

 

The 2018 ENIGMA Young Investigator Prize of the Verein für wissenschaftliche Fachtagungen in der Biomedizin e.V. (VWFB e.V.) was awarded to PD Dr.med. Ihsan Ekin Demir, PhD to host the think-tank meeting “NIC: Neural Influences in Cancer”. The meeting was a full success. Dr. Demir not only organized an inspiring meeting, he also founded a community. Together, the speakers of the meeting have now published a commentary in Cancer Cell entitled "Clinically Actional Strategies for Studying Neural Influences in Cancer", in which the authors mention the meeting in acknowledgment and thank the VWFB. According to Dr. Demir, there is a second publication underway, which deals with questions of preclinical research in the field. Together, the two papers should lay the foundation for an application within the framework of a DFG priority program. We wish Dr. Demir best of luck for his future.