The award has been in place since 2009 and is awarded each year at the EAPC World Research Congress. The aim of the award is to recognise and support the work of scientists and clinicians who make an outstanding contribution to palliative care research.
This year, there will be three separate awards: one for early researchers, one for researchers at post doctoral level and one for clinical researchers.
On the EAPC blog, 2012 recipients, Lucy Selman, Matthew Maddocks and Stephanie Stiel, reflect on the path their careers have taken since they won the award.
Lucy Selman, Cicely Saunders International Faculty Scholar, Cicely Saunders Institute, Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, UK, won the award in 2012 for her PhD research, which investigated the spiritual well-being of patients receiving palliative care in South Africa and Uganda. Dr Selman said: “The award opened many doors, offering new opportunities, widening my network of research partners and strengthening my relationships with colleagues in Europe.”
Matthew Maddocks, Specialist Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Health Services Research, Cicely Saunders Institute, Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, UK, took joint second prize for research focussing on the role of exercise for people with cancer cachexia.
He said: “Three years on, I hold a lecturer post with a focus on health services research for older people and am based at the Cicely Saunders Institute in London, led by Professor Irene Higginson. This position offers relative stability, and I’m beginning to grow a team to explore the interface between palliative care and rehabilitation.”
Stephanie Stiel, Psychologist and Leader of the Research Unit, Department of Palliative Medicine, Erlangen University Hospital, Germany, shared second place. She commented: “To be one of the Early Researcher Award winners in 2012 was a great honour and very meaningful to me. I wasn’t convinced that I was competitive enough to make it through the selection process, but in the end I gained plenty of self-esteem from this achievement.”
The deadline for applications for the EAPC Early Researcher Award is 13 December 2015.
To download eligibility criteria and an application form, please visit the EAPC congress website (Choose the ‘Scientific’ tab and follow links to ‘Early Research Award’).
Read more stories from previous ERA winners here.
Read a longer post on the EAPC blog, and the full article in the journal Palliative Medicine.
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