IVRA

Fellowship Guidelines

Introduction

The IVRA Travel Fellowship program was established in 1988.  It is designed to assist veterinarians in attending and presenting a paper at a Scientific Meeting of the Association.  Veterinarians should have a special interest in veterinary radiology and from countries where they have had little previous contact with others in veterinary radiology. It is reasoned that those awarded a Fellowship will take the knowledge gained from the Meeting and use it to foster the development of radiology in their own country. The first Fellowships were awarded in 1991 and permitted veterinarians from Egypt, India and Romania to attend the 9th Meeting of the Association in the Netherlands (a list of past winners of the Travel Fellowships is given below).

Membership of the Selection Committee

The Committee to select those to be awarded a Travel Fellowship will consist of the following six members - the Vice President of the IVRA as the committee chair, the organizer of the relevant Scientific Meeting of the IVRA, and two Directors of the IVRA (appointed by the Chairperson of the Committee). The President and Treasurer of the IVRA will be ex officio members of the Committee, but will not be voting members in the selection of the successful Fellows.

Applications

All applications and requests for information should be sent electronically to:

Dr. Peter Lord: peter.lord@kv.slu.se

Each applicant must complete the application form (downloaded from the IVRA website; see top of page) to provide the following information:

• a brief curriculum vitae containing details of academic qualifications and a list of appointments and other merits,
• a statement giving details as to how the award of a Travel Fellowship would foster the development of veterinary radiology in their country,
• details of previous travel outside their country,
• details of other financial assistance that could partially cover the costs of attending the IVRA Scientific Meeting,
• extent of financial assistance being sought by the applicant from the IVRA - will the costs of air fares, conference registration and accommodation, and a daily expenses allowance need to be covered by the Travel Fellowship?
• a scientific abstract giving details of the work performed by the applicant which is to be presented at the Scientific Meeting. The abstract will conform to the guidelines prepared by the Scientific Program Committee and will be suitable for publication in the Proceedings of the Scientific Meeting. 

The Chairperson of the Committee must receive a completed application by the advertised closing date of 15 December 2008 for the 2009 IVRA meeting in Brazil.  

Procedures for Award of Travel Fellowships

1. The Chairperson of the Committee shall maintain a list of names and addresses of the Schools of Veterinary Medicine located in emerging countries. It will be compiled from a number of sources, including the World Health Organization, various embassies and personal contacts. The list will be modified from time to time as new information becomes available.

2. About a year before an IVRA Scientific Meeting, an advertisement will be sent by the Chairperson to each of the listed Schools of Veterinary Medicine calling for applications for the Travel Fellowships.

3. A copy of each application and its accompanying abstract will be sent by the Chairperson to each member (except the ex officio members) of the Travel Fellowship Committee. Each member of the Committee will be asked to give each applicant a score of 0 to 10 for each of the following:

• the merit of the application as judged by country of origin, previous opportunities to travel, and availability of other travel funds,
• the quality of the scientific abstract.

A score out of 20 will be given to each applicant. For each applicant, the scores obtained from the four Committee members will be averaged and the applicants will then be ranked. Should two or more applicants receive the same score, the President of the IVRA will be asked to provide additional deciding scores.

4. A maximum of one successful applicant will be from a particular country.

5. The number and value of each Travel Fellowship will be determined by the Committee in the light of the total funds approved by the IVRA. In past years the maximum value of a Travel Fellowship has been US $5,000.00. Traditionally, the costs of the Travel Fellowships have been included in the budget for the Scientific Meeting and met from its profits.

6. The Chairperson of the Committee will provide the Conference organizer with the names of the acceptable applicants in their ranked order. The successful applicants will be notified by the organizer of the Scientific Meeting, who will also be responsible for all arrangements, including the allocation of funds, relating to the each Fellow's attendance at the Scientific Meeting.