OMERACT FELLOW PROGRAM
Update by Maria-Antonietta D’Agostino & Lyn March, December 2015
Background
There is strong agreement with the overarching principal/philosophy to train Fellows in the tradition
and methods of OMERACT recognizing that they are our solution to the sustainability of the excellent
ground work established over the past 20 years.
There is strong agreement from participants and the OMERACT Executive Committee that the
Fellows program is a valued part of the OMERACT Program (one-day meeting +daily sessions) and
competing external programs will not be scheduled simultaneously (apart from New OMERACT
Attendees and Patient Orientation Programs).
Therefore, as part of the OMERACT process, all working groups (WG) and special interest groups
(SIGs) must nominate a Fellow to become registered with OMERACT.
However, young researchers, with genuine motivation to learn about outcome measures and
OMERACT, are welcomed to apply to the Fellow program even if they are not linked to any OMERACT
WG.
Fellow Eligibility Criteria & Role

We accept 2 categories of Fellows:
o WG-SPONSORED (i.e. already linked with a WG)
o WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED (i.e. without any prior link with a WG )
Common rules and activities:







A Fellow (WG-SPONSORED or WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED) is anyone in a training scheme (an
attestation letter from the supervisor or the institution secretary should be provided) or
having already completed the training, who is “young” in his/her research career and not
older than 40 years.
We will not set a limit and we will accept as many as apply and if there are more than 20
Fellows, then extra senior OMERACTors will help run parallel orientation and daily sessions.
Fellows must attend the first day meeting and present their work as poster or oral
presentation.
Fellows must attend the scheduled daily Fellow sessions.
Fellows will be invited to present the summary of the previous days SIGs at the beginning of
each day to the main meeting.
Fellows are expected to participate in the ENTIRE program, ALL sessions.
A Fellow can only attend the OMERACT Fellow Daily program once, however they are most
welcome at subsequent OMERACT meetings.
Specific criteria:
A) WG-SPONSORED






All WG-SPONSORED Fellows are required to submit an abstract and participate in the Fellow
first day and daily session programs ,which make them eligible for the subsidized registration
rate.
A WG-SPONSORED Fellow should expect to present for at least some part of the WG
presentation in the main meeting of the group (SIG, WS, Module, etc.).
The abstract work submitted to the Fellow Program should NOT be identical to the
presentation in the main meeting, but may be a spin-off from that work or a more detailed
version of what is going to be presented in the main OMERACT WG meeting (exceptions to
this may be first time SIGs).
WG leads are required to review and endorse the WG-SPONSORED Fellow’s abstracts prior to
submission.
WG-SPONSORED Fellows who are attending a second or subsequent OMERACT may still
submit an abstract of their work for discussion and for receiving the reduced rate, if not
already being supported by their WG. These Fellows would attend the Fellow First Day
Session, but would not attend the Fellow Daily Sessions.
All WGs presenting at the meeting must help support the WG-SPONSORED Fellow financially
to attend the meeting.
B) WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED






All WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED Fellows are required to submit an abstract and present a
poster during the First Day Meeting, which make them eligible for the subsidized registration
rate.
WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED will be accepted to participate to the Fellow program only if they
are funded by EULAR or the ARA.
o http://www.eular.org/edu_course_omeract.cfm.
o ARA will be providing two bursaries of $5,000 AUD each. (Contact: Professor Lyn
March; lyn.march@sydney.edu.au) Bursaries are only available for individuals
residing in Australia.
WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED Fellows who are not submitting an abstract or participating in the
poster review session will not receive the reduced registration rate and cannot participate in
the Fellow Program.
A letter of support is required from current or most recent past supervisor at time of
registration.
The abstract should be in the spirit of OMERACT activities and feedback and revision will be
supervised by a senior OMERACT panel.
If WG-NOT PRE-SPONSORED Fellows have not found by themselves a WG of interest, one
will be allocated before coming to the meeting (meaning that in some instances WGs will
have more than one Fellow).
The deadline for submission of Fellow applications, abstracts and attestation letters is
February 15, 2016. Please submit all documents to: admin@omeract.org