From the CEO’s desk: Scholarships for Seoul

This is the first WONCA News for 2018, so I wish all our readers and members a belated Happy New Year. This will, of course, be a busy year for us, with the World Council and conference scheduled for Seoul, Korea, in October. Plans are already well advanced, and I wanted to use this month’s column to promote a number of WONCA awards and bursaries which are available to assist attendance at the world conference.

Montegut scholarship

The Montegut Global Scholars Program (MGSP) was established by the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation (ABFM-F) in 2010. It supports the attendance of one family physician from each of the seven regions of WONCA at their regional meetings or to the international meeting in the year when it is held. The MGSP will provide a scholarship to the value of US$3,300 for the selectee from each region to attend the WONCA world conference, in Seoul, in 2018. Further details, including an application form, are available on the WONCA website

PLEASE NOTE:
For WONCA Europe - the application deadline was 1st February 2018 but you should check the WONCA Europe website in case of a last-minute extension.

For WONCA North America - the award is limited to members of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians. Further details can be obtained from the WONCA North America Region President at [email protected].

For all other WONCA regions - the application deadline is 20th April 2018. All applications should be submitted to the WONCA World Secretariat, email: [email protected]

Taiwan Family Medicine Research Award

The Taiwan Family Medicine Research Award (TFMRA) was established by the Chinese Taipei Association of Family Medicine in 2008 and was founded to encourage junior family physicians to conduct research in the specialty of family medicine. TFMRA offers a prize of USD1,500 each to three young family physicians for the excellence of their research, to enable them to attend the WONCA World Conference in Seoul. The TFMRA winners are encouraged to present their research papers (if abstract is accepted) and to accept their award from the President of the Chinese Taipei Association of Family Medicine at the WONCA World Conference.

One out of the three award winners must be from the Asia Pacific region.

Eligibility for applicants
1. The applicant must be a practicing family physician, an attending physician, a resident, or a graduate student in the specialty of family medicine.
2. The applicant should be under 40 years old or have no more than three years of research experience.
3. The applicant must submit a full paper which is not yet published and has not been presented at any international meeting.
4. The submitted paper has not been funded or awarded any prize and will be submitted for presentation at the WONCA World Conference in Seoul.

Criteria for selection
1. Relevance of the research topic to family physicians of the country where the research was conducted.
2. The rigor of research methodology.
3. The contribution of the research to clinical practice.
4. Quality of the writing of the literature review, materials and methods, results, and discussion.
5. The paper should be an original article and comply with code of research ethics.

To apply
Please send submissions, including a covering letter to Chinese Taipei Association of Family Medicine and a copy of a recent CV, by the closing date of 31st March 2018, to:

Dr Donald Li, Chair of WONCA Nominating and Awards Committee, by email to the WONCA World Secretariat at [email protected]
All awards
Finally, a reminder that the outline schedule for Seoul was included in my WONCA News article in June 2017, which can still be accessed.
Schedule for Seoul
Until next month.

Dr Garth Manning
Chief Executive Officer