EANS Research Committee

November 2011

Dear Officers of EANS member National Neurosurgical Societies

We are writing as members of the EANS Research Committee.  The research committee has traditionally had two main remits. Firstly, the award of the annual Aesculap Prize for the best research project undertaken by a young neurosurgeon within Europe and secondly organisation of the annual EANS research course, the next to be held in Lausanne in 2011. Recently we have been able, thanks to the generosity of Aesculap, to award two annual research prizes of €5,000 each, one for the best clinical and one for the best laboratory project.

Our reason for writing to you is three-fold:

Firstly, we are keen to increase the role of the research committee to include the promotion of European multicentre research studies. We intend to create a directory (covering all neurosurgical subspecialities) on the EANS website of clinical trials with contact details and links to the appropriate trial website. The aim is to increase collaboration and assist in the recruitment of subjects. Any investigators who would like their studies to be entered into the directory should contact Mr Peter Hutchinson by e-mail pjah2@cam.ac.uk

Secondly, we are seeking entries for the Aesculap prizes. The deadline for entries is 31st January 2011 and entry instructions are available on the EANS website www.eans.org.

Thirdly, and thanks to the generosity of Medtronic, we have also been in obtaining funding for a research travel fellowship. This provides funding of €4000 (€3,000 for the researcher and €1,000 for the institution) for a young neurosurgeon to visit a research unit in another country to develop research collaborations. Entry instructions will shortly be available on the EANS website.

Please encourage your young neurosurgeons to apply for these awards.

We would be very grateful if you would kindly distribute this letter to members of your national society in order to help to promote Neurosurgical Research within Europe.

Peter Hutchinson (Chairman),                                                                    

Juan Barcia                                                               Radoslaw Rola

Jan Willem Berkelbach van der Sprenkel                Guy Rosenthal          

Lorenzo Bello                                                            Ali Savas

Jocelyne Bloch                                                         Eric Schmidt                         

Nikos Foroglou                                                          Walter Stummer        

Juha Jaaskelainen                                                   

Members of the EANS Research Committee.