WE&ME - Emerging Leader Award - Deadline October 2026

Hutan

Hutan

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Moved from: 2026 WE&ME Research Project - a research fund in collaboration with Science for ME

Also drawing people's attention to the Emerging Leaders award - two awards EUR5000 each. The award amount has ended up being pretty small. But, it's a nice acknowledgement of someone, an international award that is good on the CV and hopefully it makes the ME/CFS research field just that little bit more rewarding to smart young researchers.

Science For ME said:
WE&ME has also announced the Emerging Leader Award, providing two awards of EUR 5,000 each to early stage researchers actively working on ME/CFS and related illnesses - see here. The application deadline is October 2026.
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If you have a favourite young researcher working on ME/CFS or a related field, encourage them to apply. Even just them hearing from you that you think they deserve the award will be a good thing.
 
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Hutan said:
Also drawing people's attention to the Emerging Leaders award - two awards EUR5000 each. The award amount has ended up being pretty small. But, it's a nice acknowledgement of someone, an international award that is good on the CV and hopefully it makes the ME/CFS research field just that little bit more rewarding to smart young researchers.


If you have a favourite young researcher working on ME/CFS or a related field, encourage them to apply. Even just them hearing from you that you think they deserve the award will be a good thing.
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Reminder via Twitter:
WE&ME Foundation @weandmecfs
WE&ME Emerging Leader Award: Nominations are still open.
Each year from 2026 to 2029, the WE&ME Emerging Leader Award recognises two outstanding early-career researchers in ME/CFS or related post-acute infectious disease research.
Awardees receive €5,000 each.Current PhD candidates and researchers who completed their PhD within the past eight years are eligible.
The call is open to researchers worldwide.
The award is nomination-based.
Candidates may be recommended by senior researchers, patients, patient representatives, patient organisations or charities.
Nominations must be submitted via email to funding@weandmecfs.org by 15 October 2026 using the provided nomination template.
Award details:weandmecfs.org/weme-emerging…
Nomination template:weandmecfs.org/wp-content/up…
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Thing that I note from the detail quoted is that researchers can't nominate themselves, the nomination needs to come from someone else, so if you appreciate the work of an early-career researcher then do consider nominating them.
 
This looks like applicant and nominator have to put their heads together, each filling in their own section? This is from the application form
[Edit: deleted a line about a section of the application form I had misunderstood]

Applicant (Institution)
Nominator (Institution)

Candidate section
Short bio
Your engagement with ME/CFS
Most significant scientific contribution to date
Use of the award funds
What is the research question in this field that you most want to see answered in the next five years?

Nominator section
Short bio of the nominator
Short Statement
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Dolphin said:
Daniel Missailidis is someone who would be a good candidate. He did his PhD in 2021 https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmissailidis . Probably won’t nominate him myself as I have a lot of demands on me relative to my health but hope someone does.
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Do we need a matchmaking service?

I have no idea which of our resident researchers fit the early career tag and which of those again are interested in applying and are looking for a nominator and I expect I'm not the only ignoramus here

As for Daniel, if nobody else has nominated him yet I would be very happy to do it (though note that I don't have an institution behind me; it may be better if the nominator was affiliated to one?). Of course that's if he wishes to apply - he may be too busy with other priorities like chasing larger grants. Feel free to DM me @DMissa if I can be of any help
 
As Ravn highlights above, the amount of work for anybody nominating a researcher should be relatively minimal. Obviously you would need to contact the person you are thinking of nominating but, assuming they are interested and they qualify, then the nominator only needs to write a short bio and statement of support and submit that along with the information that your selected researcher needs to supply.

How I went about this, in case it is helpful to anybody else. Having decided to nominate Audrey Ryback, I sent her a brief email explaining what I intended and asking, if she was interested, in confirming that she was eligible. I also included a link to the award page. She came back confirming her interest and eligibility and we then exchanged one or two more emails to coordinate when she would be able to supply the required information. She's rather busy so we will be sorting this out early next month.

One thing I did find out, through conversation with @Benjamin Missbach , is that researchers can only be nominated once, although multiple people can sign up to the one nomination. I thought this was worth noting in order to potentially prevent duplicated effort.

And finally, it is probably best to highlight that we can individually only nominate at most two researchers.
 
Andy said:
How I went about this, in case it is helpful to anybody else. Having decided to nominate Audrey Ryback, I sent her a brief email explaining what I intended and asking, if she was interested, in confirming that she was eligible. I also included a link to the award page. She came back confirming her interest and eligibility and we then exchanged one or two more emails to coordinate when she would be able to supply the required information. She's rather busy so we will be sorting this out early next month.
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Ah good to see you’ve nominated Audrey. I wanted to nominate them but organising this kind of thing is way beyond my capacity.
 
Reminder via Twitter:


Early-career researchers enter ME/CFS research with professional conviction but face limited funding and uncertain career prospects.
The WE&ME Emerging Leader Award recognises the commitment it takes to stay in the field through two annual prizes of €5,000 each, while also offering greater visibility and closer ties to the ME/CFS community.

Anyone who has taken a career break due to illness is not penalised for it.

Nominations may be submitted by senior researchers, patients, patient representatives, patient organisations or charities, giving the ME/CFS community a voice in highlighting researchers whose work matters to it.

Nominations are open until 15 October 2026.

Further details:​
www.weandmecfs.org

WE&ME Emerging Leader Award • WE&ME Stiftung

About the Award The WE&ME Emerging Leader Award recognises outstanding early-career researchers who combine scientific excellence with meaningful
www.weandmecfs.org www.weandmecfs.org

 
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