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ECTS Career Establishment Award

2011 Award announcement

There will be no funding available for the ECTS Career Establishment Award in 2012.

Description
The ECTS Career Establishment Award is intended to assist newly-appointed faculty members in launching a successful research career.

  • to help meet some of the immediate costs of initiating research
  • to support and stimulate research on calcified tissues and related topics
  • to serve as a recruitment tool to assist in attracting young researchers to the ECTS

Amount
€20,000 (Euro) over a period of 2 or 3 years, payable in installments
Eligibility
Candidates must fulfill the following criteria

  • must be within 3 years of being appointed to their first faculty position as an independent researcher within a European (or International – see below) Academic Research Institution
  • applicant must be a member of ECTS and be working in a European institution.  Applications will be considered from European members who are working in an International institution if a strong case can be presented for performing the research outside of Europe
  • must be working in an area of research relevant to the aims of the ECTS
  • previous recipients of an ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship, ECTS/Amgen Bone Biology Fellowship, ECTS/Servier Fellowship, ECTS Career Establishment award or ECTS PhD Studentship are not eligible to apply
  • applicant may only apply for one award (i.e. applicants for ECTS Career Establishment Award  may not apply for any other ECTS award in the current year)

Please note

  • funds are not to be used for university/institution overheads
  • applicants are encouraged to seek funding from alternative sources for their research.  However, successful applicants will be requested to complete a declaration form to state that they have not gained simultaneous funding from another organization towards the support of his/her salary for the same research project. Accordingly, the successful applicant is expected to inform ECTS in this event and the ECTS Board will make appropriate adjustments to the award, up to a complete withdrawal if the amount obtained from the other source covers 100% of the applicant’s salary
  • applications must be made on-line from the ECTS web site

Review Procedure
All applications are reviewed by an independent panel of reviewers and any conflicts of interest are identified and dealt with appropriately.
The final decision is based on the marks and comments from the reviewers and any conflicts of interest are identified and dealt with appropriately.

Report
 Successful applicants will be required to:

  • submit a written report on the progress of their research at the end of the grant period
  • present a short outline of their research during the European Symposium on Calcified Tissues

The final installment of the grant will be payable on receipt of the written report

2011 Announcement

2011 AWARD ANNOUNCED DURING THE 3RD JOINT MEETING OF THE ECTS AND IBMS IN ATHENS
The 2011 ECTS Career Establishment Award was presented to Rahul Tare (Southampton, UK) on Sunday 8 May at the Megaron ICC in Athens.

CEA Award

Rahul Tare (right) with Professor Roland Baron - ECTS President

Title: 

Insight into the physiology of skeletal development: Role of Bcl-2-associated athanogene-1 Bag-1

Abstract of research: 

By defining the role of the Bag-1 gene in the development of the skeletal system, this study aims to enhance our understanding of how genetic factors regulate the complex process of skeletogenesis. Bag-1 null and haploinsufficient mice at different stages of embryogenesis will be utilised to elucidate effects of Bag-1 deletion on development of skeletal elements and mechanisms regulating early mesenchymal cell condensations, cytoskeletal interactions dictating chondrocyte morphology, chondrocyte development and onset of hypertrophy during cartilage anlage formation. We will then analyse how Bag-1 expression is regulated during chondrocyte development by the complex network of hormones and genes with defined roles in skeletal development. Finally, the study will determine whether Bag-1 signal transduction via the ERK1/2 MAPK pathway induces hypertrophic gene expression and, thus, influences the onset of chondrocyte hypertrophy. Improved appreciation of skeletal development will enhance our understanding of musculoskeletal diseases and augment development of skeletal tissue regeneration strategies.

 

Previous award winners

2010 Dr Riku Kiviranta (Turku, Finland)
2009 Simone Cenci (Milan, Italy)
2008 Frank de Vries (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
2008 Julie Crocket (Aberdeen, UK)
2007 Marcel Karperien (Twente, The Netherlands)
2006 Rob van 't Hof (Edinburgh, UK)
2005 Miep Helfrich (Aberdeen, UK)

Publications resulting from research – Miep Helfrich

Please note that these publications benefitted from the support, but were not exclusively funded through ECTS. Some of these publications additionally benefitted from ECTS support through exchange grants (authors Van Wesenbeeck and  Perdu spent time with the grant holder in Aberdeen).

1. Van Wesenbeeck, L, Odgren PR, Coxon, FP, Frattini, A, Moens, P, Perdu, B, MacKay CA, Van Hul, EM, Timmermans, JP, Vanhoenacker, F, Jacobs, R, Peruzzi, B, Teti, A, Helfrich, MH, Rogers MJ, Villa A, Van Hul, WInvolvement of PLEKHM1 in osteoclastic vesicular transport and osteopetrosis in incisors absent rats and human. J. Clin. Invest., 117:919-930, 2007. PMID: 17404618 

2. Sobacchi, C, Frattini, A, Guerrini, M, Abinum, M, Pangrazio, A, Susani, L, Bredius, R, Mancini, G, Cant, A, Bishop, N, Grabowski, P, Del Fattore, A, Messina, C, Errigo, G, Coxon, FP, Scott, DI, Teti, A, Rogers, MJ, Vezzoni, P, Villa, A, Helfrich MH. Osteoclast-poor osteopetrosis due to mutations in RANKL. Nat. Gen., 39: 980-962, 2007. PMID: 17632511

3. Guerrini, MM, Sobacchi, C, Cassani, B, Abinun, M, Kilic, SS, Pangrazio, A, Moratto, D, Mazzolari, E, Clayton-Smith, J, Orchard, P, Coxon FP,  Mellis, D, Helfrich M, Crockett J, Vellodi, A, Ilhan Tezcan, I Notarangelo LD, Rogers MJ, Vezzoni P, Frattini A, Villa A. 2008 Human osteoclast-poor osteopetrosis with hypogammaglobulinemia due to RANK TNFRSF11A  mutations. Am. J. Human. Genet. 83:64-76, 2008. PMID: 18606301

4. Helfrich, M., Perdu, B, Coxon, F. Human Recessive Osteopetrosis. New understanding of osteoclast function through molecular and functional analysis of a rare genetic bone disease. Osteologie 4: 260-267, 2009.

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