Objectives of the Fellowships programme

Amongst the fellowships awarded, are two 2004 Nobel Prize for Chemistry winners; Dr Aaron Ciechanover, who had received the fellowship in 1988 and Dr Avram Hershko, who had received both this fellowship in 1996 and a UICC Yamagiwa-Yoshida Memorial Cancer Study Grant in 2000.  Dr Harald Zur Hausen, the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine winner is also one of our fellowships applications reviewers since 1999.

The goals include not only developing future leaders in cancer research in around the world, but also facilitating a global effort in cancer prevention and control.  
This will be done by developing the necessary intellectual infrastructure in home countries (since the fellows must return to their home institute), encouraging collaborative interactions to facilitate interdisciplinary basic and applied cancer research, and establishing a network of researchers and translational scientists for rapid dissemination of new knowledge and technology in developing and sharing of best practices.  The fellowship enables beginning investigators and clinicians to carry out research projects and to develop, acquire, and apply advanced research procedures and techniques into the preclinical, clinical, epidemiological, psychosocial, behavioural, health services, health policy and outcomes, and cancer control aspects of the disease through twelve-month-long work periods abroad.

Based on the outcome of the fellowships completed to date, it is clear that the fellowship provides an important opportunity for this group of professionals to accelerate their development and to establish new and long lasting research collaborations.  Benefit is derived from the fellowship by all partners: the Fellows, the host institutes and the Fellows' home institutes, and, ultimately, and most importantly, the cancer patients.

Within one month of fellowship completion, fellows provide us with an end of project report along with an evaluation and performance grade from the host supervisor.  One year later, fellows are requested to complete an Evaluation after 1 year form.  This information provides us on their current status and what benefits the fellowships have evoked.

As the huge global disparity between scientific knowledge and practical application increases, so the gap is also widening between different communities’ access to cancer information, prevention and screening worldwide. Through its efforts in the field of Knowledge Transfer, UICC is actively seeking to reverse these trends.