ENIGMA Young Investigator Prize (ENIGMA YIP)

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.

On the occasion of the 10th International Kloster Seeon meeting “Angiogenesis”, VWFB announced 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 (headquarter of VWFB).

With the ENIGMA YIP the VWFB aims 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 €) was intended 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 – 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. Nevertheless, applications from any field of life science will be considered. Selection criteria will be scientific strength, excite¬ment and novelty.