Call for ASAS Fellowships

The call for ASAS Fellowships is now open.

Please apply before the 1st of July, 2024

Purpose of the ASAS Fellowship

  • To stimulate interest in clinical research in young investigators with an interest in spondyloarthritis in initiating or further developing their clinical research skills.
  • To establish a mentoring relationship between a fellow and a mentor working at an ASAS centre to perform clinical research in axial and peripheral SpA (preferably outside of the applicant’s country) for 6-12 months.

Conditions and requirements

  • Applicants ≤40 years of age, at an early stage of the research career and who are not an ASAS member. 
  • Applicants go to an ASAS centre other than their own centre, located at least in another city than the applicant’s institution, preferably also in another country. An ASAS centre is defined as a centre with ≥1 ASAS full member.
  • The research project should focus on clinical research (i.e. not basic research) in SpA (including axSpA and pSpA, but not on PsA).
  • Fluent in English or in the language of the hosting country.
  • Stipend: up to 2 fellowships per year, € 25.000 each, intended to support travel, accommodation and living costs only. Duration: 6-12 months. 
  • The research project should start after granting the fellowship.
  • Approved projects should be completed by the end of the award period.
  • The results of the scientific work will be presented during the annual ASAS workshop. Abstract submissions to the annual EULAR and ACR meetings and the SpA Congress in Gent are encouraged. Full publications of the projects are expected.
  • Funding of ASAS should be acknowledged in all communications.

Guidelines for the ASAS Fellowship

Application should include:

 

General notes

  • Application form filled by applicant and host center should be submitted to mail@asas-group.org
  • Award selection will be performed by the Executive and Advisory Committees. Committee members supporting grant applications (or working in the same centre) will be recused from the
    selection process of the individual application in conflict.

Awarded ASAS Fellowships

2023 ASAS Fellowships

  • Diana Moldovan, Project “Sex differences in diagnosis, treatment initiation, and disability after 18 years of follow-up: data from the Spanish REGISPON-3 registry“, Córdoba, Spain
  • Omar-Javier Calixto, Project “Evaluating societal health utilities based on ASAS Health Index in patients with axial and peripheral spondyloarthritis: an ancillary analysis from a multinational international study“, Herne, Germany

2022 ASAS Fellowships

  • Bayram Farisogullari, Project “Differences in MRI lesions according to disease phenotype in people with axial spondyloarthritis – axial involvement vs. axial plus peripheral involvement: data from the ASAS MRI cohort“, London, UK
  • Ana Bento da Silva, Project “Does an early diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis matter?: Comparing two year outcomes of axial spondyloarthritis with non-axial spondyloarthritis chronic back pain in the SPondyloArthritis Caught Early (SPACE) Cohort“, Leiden, the Netherlands
  • Yvonne van der Kraan – Project “Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the mSQUASH, a questionnaire for daily physical activity in patients with axial spondyloarthritis“, San Francisco, USA
  • Philipp Bosch “The various classes of axSpA and their development over time. A latent transition analysis of the SPACE cohort“, Leiden, the Netherlands
    • Bosch P, Sepriano A, Marques ML, et al. Change in different classes of chronic back pain suspicious of axial spondyloarthritis: a latent transition analysis of the SPACE cohort. RMD Open. 2024;10(3):e004584.

2021 ASAS Fellowships

  • Paras Karmacharya, Project “Accumulation of Comorbidities and Association with Disease Activity and Functional Impairment in Ankylosing Spondylitis: data from the PSOAS cohort”, Nashville, USA

2020 ASAS Fellowships

  • Murat Torgutalp, Project “Long-term evolution of radiographic sacroilitis progression in patients with axial spondyloarthritis: a 10-year prospective follow-up of the German spondyloarthritis cohort (GESPIC)”, Berlin, Germany
    • Torgutalp M, Rios-Rodriguez V, Proft F, et al. Treatment with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors is associated with a time-shifted retardation of radiographic sacroiliitis progression in patients with axial spondyloarthritis: 10-year results from the German Spondyloarthritis Inception Cohort. Arthritis Rheumatol 2022 Sep;74(9):1515-1523
  • Xabier Michelena Vegas, Project “Prevalence of extra-articular manifestations in axial spondyloarthritis (and psoriatic arthritis): Exploring its association with disease duration and gender”, Leeds, UK
    • Michelena X, Zhao SS, Marco-Pascual S, et al. Diagnostic delay is associated with uveitis and inflammatory bowel disease in AS: a study of extra-musculoskeletal manifestations in SpA. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2023 May 15;kead225
  • Jacqueline So, Project: “The association of gut inflammation and axial inflammation in sponyloarthriits patients in Hong Kong”, Gent, Belgium

2019 ASAS Fellowships

  • Augusta Ortolan, Project “Calculating the Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) in radiographic and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis when patient global assessement (PGA) is not available”, Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Jean Liew, Project “Association of NSAID use and incident hypertension in ankylosing spondylitis”, San Francisco, US
  • Gilian Fitzgerald, Project “Beyond the Spine: Longitudinal analysis of extra-articular events in axial spondyloarthritis”, Toronto, Canada

2018 ASAS Fellowships

  • Mikhail Protopopov, Project: “Development of the ASAS Case Library”, Berlin, Germany

2017 ASAS Fellowships

  • Anthony So, Project : “Radiographic progression in juvenile-onset ankylosing spondylitis”, Toronto, Canada

2016 ASAS Fellowships

  • Bhowmik Meghnathi – Paris, France
  • Sebastián Ibáñez, Project: “Body composition in spondyloarthritis”, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2015 ASAS Fellowships

  • Jonathan Chan, Project: “Prevalence of sacroiliitis on CT scan in inflammatory bowel disease”, Toronto, Canada
  • Alexandre Sepriano, Project: “Retention rate and predictive factors of TNF blockers”, Leiden, The Netherlands
    • Sepriano A, Ramiro S, van der Heijde D, et al. Effect of comedication with conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti rheumatic drugs on retention or tumor necrosis factor inhibitors in patients with spondyloarthritis: a prospective cohort study. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2016 Nov;68(11):2671-2679

2014 ASAS Fellowships

  • Aleksandra Fedorova, Project: “Physical Function and Spinal Mobility in Relation to Radiographic Spinal Progression in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis under Long-Term Treatments with TNF-α Inhibitors”, Berlin, Germany
    •  Poddubnyy D, Fedorova A, Listing J, et al. Physical function and spinal mobility remain stable despite radiographic spinal progression in patients with ankylosing spondylitis treated with TNF-alpha inhibitors for up to 10 years. J Rheumatol 2016 Dec;43(12):2142-2148

2013 ASAS Fellowships

  • Dinny Wallis, Project: “Infection risk in Ankylosing Spondylitis: an observational study”, Toronto, Canada
    • Wallis D, Thavaneswaran A, Haroon N, et al. Tumour necrosis factor inhibitor therapy and infection risk in axial spondyloarthritis: results from a longitudinal observational cohort. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2015 Jan;54(1):152-6

2012 ASAS Fellowships

  • Wilson Bautista, Project: “Analysis and performance of various classification criteria sets in a Colombian cohort of patients with spondyloarthritis”, Leiden, The Netherlands
    • Bautista-Molano W, Landewé RBM, Londoño J, et al. Analysis and performance of various classification criteria sets in a Colombian cohort of patients with spondyloarthritis. Clin Rheumatol. 2016 Jul;35(7):1759-67
    • Bautista-Molano W, Landewé RBM, Serna C, et al. Factors associated with the decisions of the rheumatologist to order sacroiliac joints magnetic resonance imaging (SI-MRI) or HLA-B27 testing in the diagnostic work-up of patients with spondyloarthritis in clinical practice. Clin Exp Rheumatol.2017 Jan-Feb;35(1):122-128
  • Inna Gaydukova, Project: “Magnetic resonance imaging compared to conventional radiographs for detection of structural changes in sacroiliac joints in axial spondyloarthritis”, Berlin, Germany
    • Poddubnyy D, Gaydukova I, Hermann KG, et al. Magnetic Resonance Imaging compared to conventional radiographs for detection of chronic structural changes in sacroiliac joints in axial spondyloarthritis. J Rheumatol 2013 Sep;40(9):1557-65
  • José Castillo-Ortiz, Project: “Which contextual factors are important when analysing and interpreting work related outcomes in Ankylosing Spondylitis and how can we assess them”, Maastricht, The Netherlands