GRANTS

2020 Viral Hepatitis Grant for early-career researchers

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 early career researcher project awards:

Vaishnavi Veeraraghavan (Honours student at Westmead Institute of Medical Research)– Exploring the role of TM6SF2 and its E167K variant in HBV/HDV coinfection

Yianni Droungas (PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne/VIDRL)– Targeted immune responses against the HBeAg in a chronic HBV mouse model utilising chimeric HBV bio-nanoparticles

Makutiro Masavuli (Postdoc at The University of Adelaide)– Evaluating the immunogenicity of a cocktail HCV DNA vaccines in mice 

The ACHV would like to sincerely congratulate each of the winners for their outstanding applications and presentations and wish them every success with their projects. All successful applicants will be required to present their results at annual ACH2 meeting in 2021.

The ACHV would like to congratulate all entrants for their submissions and presentations. They were of an extremely high standard with only a few points separating the field. We encourage you to continue to pursue your research goals and for all eligible candidates to submit applications for next year’s round.

Background

To honour World Hepatitis Day 2020 (28^th July), ACHV announced the funding of three $2000 prizes for early career researchers and PhD students to carry out innovative research into viral hepatitis. Each year, the ACHV runs travel award competitions for attendance at National and International conferences.

Due to COVID-19, we are all presently unable to attend International conferences, and most National conferences have switched to a virtual platform. In lieu of travel awards to early career researchers, the executive of the ACHV ran an early career researcher project award. Three prizes of $2000 each were available through a competitive process that included submission of an abstract and three minute presentation at the annual ACH2 meeting on the 5th of November. A total of 9 entries were shortlisted and presented for judging. To ensure a fair and transparent process, the ACHV appointed four external non conflicted expert judges.

Eligibility (for 2020 applications – now closed, stay tuned for next round)

• To be eligible for this grant, you must be a financial member of ACHV.
• If you are not currently a member, we welcome you to join our society (application form accessible at https://www.achv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ACHV_Membership-application-2020.doc), after which you will be eligible to apply for these grants.
• The research should take place in Australia and should focus on viral hepatitis.

Details

• 3 x prizes of $2000.00 each will be offered for consumables or services to carry our innovative research without regard to track-record.
• We encourage ECRs, Masters and Ph.D. candidates to enter.
• Applications can be made as an individual or group entry.
• Multiple entries are allowed, but only 1 entry per lead/representative investigator will be chosen for shortlisting.
• Applications should be sent to ACHV Secretary Dr. Thomas Tu (t.tu@sydney.edu.au)
• Applications closed on 28^th August 2020.

Conditions

• ACHV reserves the right not to grant all or any awards.
• Decisions will be final and no appeals will be considered.
• Award winners must acknowledge ACHV funding in their presentation, and include the ACHV logo on their slides.
• A short report should be provided to the Selection Committee (via the secretary) within 1 year. The report should include a brief outline of the results attained with the funding (2 pages maximum). This will be included in the ACHV Annual report.