Research Fellowship

Apply for the Research Fellowship 2025 by December 4, 2024

Take the next step for your scientific career

UEG will award two fellowships of € 50,000 each to two researchers to spend 12 months working with a renowned European principal investigator.

The main purpose of this fellowship is to support the development of a basic or clinical research project and give the fellows the chance to improve their scientific skills. The fellowships are highly recommended for young researchers who are not in a position to develop their ideas at their current place of work.

We encourage young researchers from Inclusiveness Target Countries (as defined for COST Actions) to apply!

Application for the Research Fellowship 2025 is open until December 4, 2024.

Target group

The grant is open to both basic and clinical researchers, and to both medical and non-medical graduates.

At the time of application, applicants for the programme must:

be a myUEG Associate
be clinical or basic researchers specialised in digestive diseases according to their track record
have completed their PhD, but no longer than five years ago or be in gastroenterology/hepatology/surgery training, or have completed it within the last five years (add two years per child for main carer, but max. 4 years)
not holding an academic permanent position
have significant research experience (according to their track record)
be fluent in English
reside in Europe, in a country bordering the Mediterranean Sea, or in a country represented by a UEG National Member Society

Based on the fulfilment of basic criteria, in 2025 at least one of the fellowships will be assigned to the top-ranked candidate from an Inclusiveness Target Country (as defined for COST Actions). Final decision remains with the Research Committee.

The grant will be awarded to the same recipient only once. For further details, read our application criteria.

How it works

To apply, please follow this step:

Download official call & criteria

 Apply 

List of potential host institutions

Host PI	Host institution	City	E-mail contact	Phone contact	Field(s) of research
Dr. Vincenzo Cardinale	Sapienza University of Rome, University Hospital Policlinico Umberto I of Rome, https://www.uniroma1.it/en/pagina/university-hospitals	Rome, Italy	[email protected]	+39 3495601492	Translational hepatology and gastroenterology, precision medicine in liver diseases and cholangiocarcinoma, liver regenerative medicine, biomarkers
Dr. Rogier P. Voermans	Amsterdam University Medical Center, https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/organization/amsterdam-umc.htm	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	[email protected]	+31 625474191	Pancreatic and biliary diseases/ advanced endoscopy. Other possible research areas include IBD, motility, colorectal, hepatology, Barrett/esophageal diseases, and small bowel diseases
Prof. Chiara Braconi	University of Glasgow, School of Cancer Sciences, https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cancersciences/	Glasgow, UK	[email protected]		Biliary oncology
Prof. Matias A. Avila	Hepatology Laboratory, Solid Tumors Program. Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) of the University of Navarra, https://cima.cun.es/en/research/research-programs/research-programs-solid-tumors	Pamplona, Spain	[email protected]	+34 649186325	Epigenetic mechanisms in the progression of metabolic liver disease and hepatobiliary tumors: from mechanisms to targets and experimental therapies.
Dr. Malu Martinez Chantar	CIC bioGUNE, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, https://www.cicbiogune.es/	Derio (Bizkaia), Spain	[email protected]	+34 629227617	Magnesium Metabolism and Liver Cancer, Disruptions in Magnesium Transporters, Night Shift Workers and Liver Disease
Prof. Bogdan Ionel Tamba	Advanced Center for Research and Development in Experimental Medicine “Prof. Ostin C. Mungiu” - CEMEX, Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, https://cemex.umfiasi.ro/	Iasi, Romania	[email protected]	+40 729290877 / +40 232267801	Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), Gastrointestinal Cancer, Liver Diseases, Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders, Pancreatic Diseases, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
Prof. Jesper B Andersen	Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC, University of Copenhagen), https://www.bric.ku.dk/research-groups/Research/andersen-group/	Copenhagen, Denmark	[email protected]	+45 21516245	The molecular pathogenesis of BTC Epigenomic regulation and transcriptional control Metabolic deregulation & biomarker development Immune regulation & inflammation Non-coding RNA and biomarker development
Dr. Mohamed Bouattour	Beaujon University Hospital, https://hopital-beaujon.aphp.fr/	Paris, France	[email protected]	+33 1 40 87 56 14	Primary liver cancer, Precision medicine in cholangiocarcinoma, Liver directed cancer therapies, Rare liver tumors
Dr. Angela Lamarca	Fundacion Jimenez Diaz University Hospital, https://www.fjd.es/	Madrid, Spain	[email protected]		Clinical and translational research in biliary tract tumours
Prof Hannes Hagström	Karolinska Institutet, https://ki.se/en/research/research-areas-centres-and-networks/research-groups/hagstrom-group	Stockholm, Sweden	[email protected]	+46 70 7430996	Clinical epidemiology and clinical studies of liver diseases, in particular SLD and MASLD, but also cirrhosis, HCC and other liver diseases; register-based studies; biostatistics; big data.

Applicants for the UEG Research Fellowship can either contact a potential host institution from the list below or reach out to a host center of their own choice.

Research Fellows 2024: André Simão & Katarzyna Radke

André Simão was awarded the UEG Research Fellowship 2024 to develop the research project "Serum microRNAs as Biomarkers of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease and Progression towards Cholangiocarcinoma" with Prof. Jesús Bañales at the Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute, Donostia Univ. Hospital, San Sebastian, Spain.

He completed his PhD in Pharmacy at the University of Lisbon, where he studied mitochondria-targeting microRNAs in liver disease and skeletal muscle therapy. Currently, he is focusing on miRNA-containing extracellular vesicles from adipose tissue in disease pathogenesis. In 2023, he started an MSc in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, specializing in multi-omics. This theoretical framework will now be applied to discover and characterize novel serum EV-miRNAs with biomarker potential in the ongoing research under the fellowship.

Katarzyna Radke received the UEG Research Fellowship 2024 to pursue the project "Precision therapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: integrating strategies to combat resistance" with Prof. Luis Arnes Perez at the University of Copenhagen's Biotech Research and Innovation Center (BRIC), Denmark.

Katarzyna is an Associate Researcher in the Division of Translational Cancer Research at Lund University, Sweden. She has recently defended her PhD thesis on "Therapeutic strategies for high-risk neuroblastoma" (PI Daniel Bexell). Her research interests include patient-derived models, tumour plasticity and combination drug testing at scale.

Past awardees

Past awardees

2023: Angelo Armandi from University of Turin, Italy.
Research Fellowship with principal investigator Jörn M. Schattenberg at the Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. Research project: “Immune activation and the liver-spleen axis in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis”

2022: Antonio Molinaro from Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Research Fellowship with principal investigator Tom Hemming Karlsen at the Norwegian PSC Research Center (NoPSC), Institute of Clinical Medicine, Oslo, Norway. Research project: “Investigating The Role Of Imidazole Propionate In The Pathogenesis Of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis”

2021: Lucas Wauters from KU Leuven, Belgium.
Research Fellowship with principal investigator Francisca Joly at the Department of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Support at Beaujon Hospital, Clichy, France. Research project: “Sarcopenia and short bowel syndrome: the microbiota-gut-muscle axis”

2020: Chloé Melchior from Rouen University, France.
Research Fellowship with principal investigator Magnus Simrén at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Research Project: “A new gas-sensing capsule to understand the mechanisms of fructan-induced symptoms in IBS, and the link to gut microbiota composition and function”
Watch the UEG Week 2022 presentation "Digestive diseases: Big burden, low funding?" with Chloé Melchior.

2019: Michal Zorniak from Medical University of Silesia.
Research Fellowship with principal investigator Julia Mayerle at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich Research Project: “Role of biliary microlithiasis-induced NLRP3-inflammasome activation for papillitis and the development of pancreatitis”

Contact

Research & Advocacy

Anna Carboni

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