Greetings from IndiaBioscience! We are happy to share the second International Grants Awareness Program (iGAP) newsletter of the year. This newsletter features latest iGAP resources and talks delivered at the 16th Young Investigators’ Meeting 2024 in Bhopal from 11-15 March 2024. Through iGAP, IndiaBioscience publishes resources for the community related to international funding opportunities, and aims to provide information, guidance and education to improve the quality and quantity of international grant applications from life science researchers in India.
iGAP at the Young Investigators’ Meeting (YIM) 2024
On day 2 of the Young Investigators’ Meeting 2024 at Bhopal, IndiaBioscience held a series of talks focused on international funding opportunities. To start with, Sayam Sen Gupta, Ambassador Scientist, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (AvH) foundation introduced the activities, network and sponsorship opportunities of the AvH Foundation. Next, Leonor Teles-Grilo Ruivo, Programme Officer, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Global Activities, discussed funding, networking and collaboration opportunities relevant to young investigators and postdoctoral fellows in India. These talks are available on our Youtube channel. You can watch Sayam's talk here and Leonor's talk here.
In the next talk, Rohini Karandikar, Associate Director, IndiaBioscience shared how young investigators and postdoctoral fellows at YIM 2024 could leverage the iGAP program. She discussed how webinars, podcasts and articles have contributed to increasing information and awareness on international funding opportunities for Indian life science researchers. She also shared how researchers who are previous international grant awardees could become iGAP mentors by sharing their inspirational stories through articles, webinars and podcasts.
EMBO Global Lecture Series at YIM 2024
At YIM 2024, international mentors Frederic Berger (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology) and Cesar Ramirez-Sarmiento (Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile) delivered EMBO Global Lecture Series talks, which were live-streamed on our YouTube channel. They are open to the community, so if you want to watch them, you can find Berger’s talk here and Ramirez-Sarmiento’s talk here.
In an initiative to host EMBO Global Lecture Series talks for the wider local community, Ramirez-Sarmiento also shared his research and career journey with first year undergraduate biology students at Azim Premji University, Bhopal (Pic. 1, credits: Arshdeep Kaur) and with PhD researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal (Pic. 2, credits: Vinita Gowda)
IndiaBioscience, in partnership with EMBO, announced courses on Laboratory Leadership for Group Leaders. These courses are aimed at young investigators who are within 7 years of starting their independent research group in a research institute or a university. The courses will be held at two locations– Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Bengaluru. Interested researchers can apply for a course at either of the locations based on their convenience. The courses offer several benefits including communication skills for leadership, conflict management and developing individual leadership styles. Applications for these courses close soon, the last date is 30 April 2024, so apply if you are interested! Please find more details here.
Close on the heels of a webinar on the EMBO Young Investigator Program, we hosted a webinar on the EMBO Global Investigator Network (GIN). In the session, moderated by Rohini Karandikar, Gerlind Wallon, Deputy Director, Programme Head at EMBO introduced the EMBO GIN initiative, and two previous EMBO GIN awardees, Baskar Bakthavachalu from IIT Mandi and Sandeep Eswarappa from IISc Bengaluru, shared experiences and benefits of the program. You can watch the webinar here.
Through iGAP Dispatches, IndiaBioscience publishes open calls and deadlines on upcoming funding opportunities open to life science researchers in India. The most recent set of dispatches, curated and published in April 2024 (Part V), can be found here.
Have you been a recipient of an international grant? Have you mentored a colleague with an international grant application? We invite stories/anecdotes from Indian life science researchers who have recently or previously been awarded international grants. Your stories can be inspirational for other researchers seeking international grants. If you are interested in sharing your story or mentorship inputs, please let us know through this form.
Shortlisted stories (with only light editing) will be published on the iGAP webpage. Additionally, you may become a part of our mentor database and get a chance to mentor prospective applicants for international grants.
iGAP in partnership with EMBO will be organising a webinar on Courses and Workshops. This webinar will introduce the EMBO Courses and Workshops, and will discuss the selection criteria for being an organiser for EMBO Courses, Workshops and Lectures. Additionally, the session will discuss aspects of preparing competitive applications for the courses and workshops.
The webinar is scheduled for 8 May 2024 from 2:30-4:00 PM IST. To register, click here.
Stay in touch
We would like to stay in touch with you and also build new connections to expand our network with the life science community to seek as well as share information on funding and skill-building opportunities. If you have an idea for an article, webinar, podcast related to international grants, or if you would like to collaborate with us on an initiative, we would like to hear from you.
