Annual Meeting & Conference
The 2024 VALIDATE Annual Meeting will be held from 15-19 July 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand.
The meeting will comprise:
- Monday 15 July: ECR workshop
- Tuesday 16 & Wednesday 17 July: Annual Meeting
- Thursday 18 & Friday 19 July: closed workshop (invite only)
The Annual Meeting will, as usual, include research talks, a poster session, and time for networking between members. More details will follow, and registration will open soon, but do save the date in your diaries.
Please note the travel grant, poster and talk abstract calls are now closed.
Register today - www.validate-network.org/event/annual-meeting-2024
VALIDATE awards a number of travel grants to low-and-middle income country (LMIC) members each year, to enable them to attend the VALIDATE Annual Meeting (and the related Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop, if relevant). The grant covers travel, accommodation and subsistence costs, up to a maximum of £3000. Please ensure you refer to the Annual Meeting Travel Grant Application Guidance Document (below) for details of eligibility, and what costs are allowable.
To apply, complete each section of the application form below, and submit your application form and associated documents (as one pdf) to our VALIDATE Executive Manager, Sam Vermaak, at VALIDATE@ndm.ox.ac.uk before the call deadline. Please do send any queries about the grant call to Sam at this address as well.
Applications will go to the VALIDATE Network Management Board (NMB) for competitive review in their January meeting. Applicants will be informed of the review outcomes within two weeks of the NMB review meeting.
The travel grants are open to all LMIC VALIDATE members of any membership level, but we particularly welcome applications from Early Career Researcher Associate VALIDATE members who do not have their own funding available. If you have received a VALIDATE travel grant previously, you are still eligible to apply in 2024.
Application documents
The VALIDATE 2024 Annual Meeting will run from 16-17 July in Thailand and we invite VALIDATE Investigator members to apply to give a talk about their research during the meeting, to publicise their research to the VALIDATE community.
To submit a Research Talk abstract for the VALIDATE 2024 Annual Meeting, please complete the application form below and email it to the VALIDATE Network Management Team at VALIDATE@ndm.ox.ac.uk by the closing date. Applications will go to the VALIDATE Network Management Board (NMB) for competitive review in their January meeting. Applicants will be informed of the review outcomes within a week of the NMB review meeting.
The VALIDATE 2024 Annual Meeting will run from 16-17 July in Thailand (with an additional Early Career Researcher workshop on the 15th) and, along with keynote talks, research presentations by VALIDATE-funded projects, and time for networking, we aim to hold a poster session so that more VALIDATE members can publicise their research. All VALIDATE members, at any membership level, are encouraged to apply.
To submit a poster abstract for the VALIDATE 2024 Annual Meeting, please complete the application form below and email it to the VALIDATE Network Management Team at VALIDATE@ndm.ox.ac.uk by the closing date. Applications will go to the VALIDATE Network Management Board (NMB) for competitive review in their January meeting. Applicants will be informed of the review outcomes within a week of the NMB review meeting.
VALIDATE 3rd Annual Meeting & VALIDATE-BSI Conference, 1-3 Oct 2019
ECR workshop "Post-doc'ing for Success 2"
Monday 30 September (full day)
For more details click here.
3rd VALIDATE Annual Meeting (VALIDATE members only)
Tuesday 1 October (full day) and Wednesday 2 October (morning)
View the Annual Meeting Programme here.
VALIDATE-BSI 2019 Conference: Vaccine Development for Neglected Intracellular Pathogens (open to all)
Wednesday 2 October (afternoon) and Thursday 3 October (full day)
We were delighted to co-host this conference with the British Society for Immunology (BSI).
View the Conference Programme here.
As part of our remit to build vaccine research capacity in LMICs and to increase collaborations across continents, VALIDATE provides around seven travel grants each year to enable LMIC Investigator and Associate Network members to attend the Annual Meeting (including the ECR workshop and VALIDATE-BSI Conference in 2019).
Up to £3000 per person is available via competitive application to the Network Management Board (NMB). We particularly welcome applications from Early Career Researcher Associate VALIDATE members who do not have their own funding available. If you have received a VALIDATE travel grant previously, you are still eligible to apply in 2019.
Applications for the Travel Grants closed on 17 July 2019 - congratulations to the following successful recipients:
- Asst Prof Vijay Prajapati, Central University of Rajasthan, India
- Asst Prof Lok Bahadur Shrestha, BPKIHS, Nepal
- Dr Olayinka Osuolale, Elizade University, Nigeria
- Dr Federico Carlos Blanco, National Institute of Agricultural Technology, Argentina
- Assoc Prof Narisara Chantratita, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Dr Panjaporn Chaichana, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Asst Prof Kiran Afshan, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan
- Dr Abhishek Mandal, ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, India
- Dr Chidchamai Kewcharoenwong, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
- Dr Fatoumatta Darboe, MRC The Gambia Unit at LSHTM, The Gambia
- Asst Prof Tufária Mussá, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
- Dr Eduardo Milton Ramos Sanchez, USP, Brazil
- Dr Suwarti, EOCRU, Indonesia
- Dr Anthony Afum-Adjei Awuah, KCCR, Ghana
VALIDATE 2nd Annual Meeting: 5-7 Nov 2018
Details
Venue: The Principal York Hotel, York, UK
Date: 9am Tuesday 6th Nov to 1pm on Wednesday 7th Nov 2018
Meeting Report
Video
Watch clips taken at the 2nd Annual Meeting and ECR Workshop along with some comments from delegates.
VALIDATE offers around ~7 travel grants each year for LMIC Investigator/Associate members to attend our Annual Meeting.
In 2018 VALDATE awarded 9 travel grants to members from Thailand, Nepal, Nigeria, Brazil, and Mozambique.
VALIDATE 1st Annual Meeting: 5&6 Sept 2017, Oxford
Details
Venue: Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford OX4 1DY, UK
Date: 12 noon on Tuesday 5th Sept to 2pm on Wed 6th Sept
Meeting Report
The British ‘summer’ was in full raining force on the 5th September 2017, but no one allowed this to dampen their spirits for the VALIDATE 1st Annual Meeting at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, UK. This was a fantastic opportunity for our members all to meet face-to-face, many of us for the first time, and we were all going to take advantage of this useful and interesting opportunity! With 38 delegates from five countries present (UK, India, Brazil, Thailand, and Uganda) there were plenty of people from a wide range of research areas and institutes to meet, which was a great representation from across the Network for our first meeting.
The Annual Meeting started with the chance to catch up with other members of the Network over a buffet lunch before Prof Helen McShane, the VALIDATE Network Director (University of Oxford), kicked off the meeting in the main Auditorium, with a brief welcome to our members. She went on to explain VALIDATE in detail – our focus, expected outputs, and vision – giving everyone a chance to more fully understand what VALIDATE aims to do over its initial MRC-funded three years. An overview of our membership numbers and names revealed that we have already grown by 18 members, 3 institutes, and 1 LMIC country since our original MRC application, which was great news in such a short time. Helen highlighted that the Network is currently slightly TB-researcher dominant, something that perhaps reflects disease burden and the funding available for each pathogen worldwide. This is something that we would like to remedy as VALIDATE grows, and members were asked to mention VALIDATE to their collaborators and research group members (especially post-docs and students) and encourage them to join the Network.
Prof Helen McShane opens the VALIDATE 1st Annual Meeting
Dr Martin Broadstock next gave a brief introduction to VALIDATE from the MRC's perspective, putting the GCRF Networks into context and clarifying the Research Council expectations. This was followed by a 15 minute overview of each pathogen, the partners involved in that area, and the challenges and opportunities in each field, with the aim of sparking new collaboration and cross-pathogen synergy ideas within the Network members. Prof Jo Prior from dstl kicked off with Burkholderia pseudomallei, Prof Mitali Chatterjee from IPGMER next covered Leishmania, and Prof Helen McShane followed with TB. Prof Tracy Hussell from University of Manchester presented cross-pathogen members and research, and Associate Prof Helen Fletcher from LSHTM went through ideas from our Social Scientists. These ‘introductions’ formed a great foundation for members to find out about the VALIDATE pathogens outside their normal research area and gave rise to animated cross-pathogen and cross-discipline discussions across the next two days.
Dr Martin Broadstock, MRC
Prof Jo Prior, dstl
Prof Mitali Chatterjee, IPGMER
Prof Tracy Hussell, University of Manchester
Assoc Prof Helen Fletcher, LSHTM
A highly efficient group photo and quick caffeine refill later, and we were into the first Networking session. The ‘speed dating’ statement in the agenda had had some members worried, but the session proved very successful. Everyone was up on their feet, running around to each station to introduce themselves to different people, and everyone got to meet everyone else and hear a brief tantalising one minute snippet about their research and career path. This event very nicely broke the ice and led to easy discussions over drinks and dinner later on as we all now felt we knew each other and could easily find mutual topics and ideas to talk about and deliberate over. It also sowed the seeds of several new collaborations, which was very exciting.
Fully energised from meeting everybody, it was back to our seats for our three industry partners, Prof Andrzej Kierzek from Certara, Dr Ian Durrant from Oxford Immunotec Ltd, and Prof Mark Coles of SimOmics, to give a short overview of what they bring to the Network, and what they hope to get from being part of VALIDATE. Then Network Manager, Samantha Vermaak, gave a detailed overview of all the opportunities for VALIDATE members, clarifying the various funding calls, the upcoming mentoring scheme, and highlighting VALIDATE’s numerous communication channels. Finally, Associate Prof Helen Fletcher closed the day with a call to arms for Workshop ideas – and then we all headed over to the drinks reception and dinner, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and filled with buzzing conversation.
Day 2 saw Associate Prof Helen Fletcher, Prof Susie Dunachie and Dr Karin Seifert each presenting an exemplar Pump-Priming grant project idea to the VALIDATE Dragons’ Den. Dragons Prof Jo Prior, Dr Rajko Reljic (SGUL), and Prof Helen McShane grilled each project, illustrating what the Network Management Board will be looking for in VALIDATE grant calls. The session was fun and interesting, as well as insightful – and a couple of the projects came out with additional collaborators, offered stored samples, and refined ideas as the audience joined in the questioning and suggestions.
Assoc Prof Helen Fletcher presents her project to the VALIDATE Dragons
A quick coffee break and we were into the second Networking session – a pump-priming project brainstorming session, first with delegates grouped by pathogen and then with everyone reshuffled for cross-pathogen and cross-discipline discussions. Some great ideas came out of this session, so we look forward to lots of exciting Pump-Priming grant applications when the call opens later this month!
A final wrap up was followed by a last opportunity to exchange ideas and contact details over lunch before delegates headed home. The Annual Meeting was a fantastic opportunity to meet and network with other VALIDATE members, form new collaborations, spark new research ideas, and have animated discussions about the research field we’re all interested in throughout the two days. There was an energetic buzz throughout the event, so a huge thank you to all our members who joined the VALIDATE first annual meeting and made it a fantastic kick-off to our work together.
“Just wanted to say a big thank you for the conference last week, was genuinely really interesting and inspiring”
“Pleased to be involved - feels like a very positive/exciting network to be part of”
Report by Samantha Vermaak
Professional photos by John Cairns
VALIDATE provides around ~7 travel grants each year for LMIC members to attend our Annual Meeting.
In 2017, three grants were awarded, to members from Uganda, Brazil and Thailand.
