Empowerment Awards

2023 Q2 Empowerment Awards are now closed. 2023 Q3 Empowerment Awards will open soon!

Information for applicants

2023 FeMS Empowerment Awards are sponsored by our Friend in Mass Spectrometry.

FeMS empowerment awards of up to $300 USD are available to FeMS members working or studying within the field of mass spectrometry. These awards will be offered on a quarterly basis with a fixed maximum total amount available. To be offered in Q1 2023 (i.e. January 3 – March 31), the maximum pool of funding available is $1500 USD. Members are encouraged to apply for these funds to cover or offset a range of job- or study-related activities, including (but not limited to): conference or course registration, childcare costs, purchasing of lab/office supplies or equipment, and publication fees. The awarded money must be spent on the intended activity on or before 30th June 2023 (some exceptions apply, please see below for more detail).

As part of the application process, applicants will be asked to:
1) Justify the amount of money requested (including proof of cost, where possible)
2) Describe the anticipated impact that the empowerment award will have on the applicant
3) Provide evidence of any other monetary support (or lack of support) available for their intended activity

We anticipate that FeMS empowerment awards will be offered quarterly and FeMS members will have unlimited attempts to apply; however, this award can only be received once per member. Award recipients will be required to provide an update to the FeMS awards committee on the impact of their funding for inclusion in FeMS newsletters and social media.

Key details and terms for the FeMS empowerment awards are provided below:

Key Dates for Q2 2023 Round

  • Open 3rd April (00:00 UTC+12), close 14th April (23:59 UTC-12), 2023
  • Expected announcement: last week of April/first week of May 2023

Application Requirements

  • A description of the intended use of the FeMS Empowerment Award (max 150 words)
  • A description of the anticipated impact of being awarded a FeMS Empowerment Award (max 150 words)
  • Evidence of the cost and date of the intended activity
    • If the intended activity falls outside of the Q1 period (i.e., January 3- March 31), then a brief justification for why this should be funded in this round (max 100 words).
  • Evidence of any additional financial support (or lack of financial support) for the intended activity. A letter from a supervisor or manager stating any available funds (or lack of available funds) is preferred.
  • Proof that you are a real, live, human being working or studying in the field of mass spectrometry. A link to a publicly available university or company (or similar) website profile is preferred. Links to publicly available social media profiles may also be considered as evidence in some circumstances.

Assessment Process

Applications will be assessed with the following in mind:

  • Enabling demonstrable positive impact on the careers of FeMS members
  • Maximizing the total number of awards able to be given in a round
  • Ensuring equity amongst underrepresented groups within science
  • Ensuring equal global representation

Applications for FeMS empowerment awards will be assessed by the FeMS Awards Committee. Current committee members include:

  • Thusi Rupasinge, SCIEX, Australia (Co-chair)
  • Sarah Hancock, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia (Co-chair)
  • Caroline Géhin, University of Manchester, UK
  • Maia Kelly, in transition, USA
  • Stacy Malaker, Yale University, USA
  • Yasaman Jami, University of California Los Angeles, USA
  • Karolina Sulek, Steno Diabetes Center, Copenhagen
  • Lisa David, in transition, USA
  • Chelsea Lin, University of Washington, USA
  • In the event that a FeMS awards committee member applies for the award, they will recuse themselves from the assessment of applications in that round.
  • Assessors must declare any potential conflicts of interest to the FeMS awards committee during the assessment process. Where a conflict of interest is apparent the assessor will not review that application.
  • If a large number of applications are received in a given round, other FeMS committee members & members of our scientific and industry advisory boards may be asked to assess applications. Current FeMS committee members, and both scientific and industry advisory board members can be viewed on the FeMS website.

Award Terms

  • FeMS members have unlimited attempts to apply for a FeMS Empowerment Award in a year (maximum 1 per quarter) but can only receive the award once.
  • The awarded money must be spent on or before the end of the quarter (30th June 2023 in this round).
  • Successful Q2 2023 empowerment grant awardees will be required to provide the following
    • A photo for use in FeMS social media and newsletter (award will not be paid out until this is received)
    • A brief update to the FeMS awards committee within two months of the award date. This will include how the award was spent (including receipts, invoices or other evidence of how the award was spent where money is paid directly to the awardee) and what the impact of the award was. Where possible, pictures of the funded activity should be included in the update. This information will be made publicly available on the FeMS website, newsletter and social media.
  • Failure to provide an update to the FeMS award committee may render the recipient ineligible for any other future award schemes offered by FeMS (monetary or otherwise).
  • Where the award is used to fund conference participation, FeMS must be acknowledged in any oral or poster presentations.
  • Awardees are encouraged to share an update of their funded activity on their own social media profiles acknowledging FeMS.
  • Awardee contact details may be forwarded to our sponsors for marketing purposes. You can opt out of this during the application process.

Payment of Award

The method of payment of the award to successful recipients is as follows (in order of preference):
a. Transfer by PayPal (preferred method).  Applicants should check with PayPal in their country to see if they can receive money transfers before applying. Other payment methods will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and will likely incur a reduction in the total amount able to be awarded to the recipient (e.g. any associated transfer fees).
b. Direct payment of the intended activity by credit card on the awardee’s behalf where possible (e.g. conference or course registration, etc.)

FeMS Empowerment Awards – Previous Rounds

Congratulations to the FeMS Empowerment Awards recipients from previous rounds:

2023 Q1

  • Dr Silvia Radrezza, Max Plank Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
  • Vanessa Erckes, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Behnaz Akbari, Boston University, USA
  • Fatemeh Farshadi, Lady Davis Institute, Canada
  • Dr Min Ma, University of Winsconsin, USA

2022 Q4

  • Sophia Escobar Correas, CSIRO, Australia
  • Kristýna Kantnerová, CU Boulder & INSTAAR, USA
  • Hsien-Jung Lin, Brigham Young University, USA
  • Yamilé López Hernández, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico
  • Stefania Noerman, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
  • ‪Nicola Procházková, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2022 Q3

  • Julie Courraud, University of Athens, Greece
  • Rashmi Kumar, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
  • Lucienne Nouchikian, Institut Pasteur, France
  • Amita Puranik, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India
  • Daniela Rojas, University of Sherbrooke, Canada
  • Louise Sternicki, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Griffith University, Australia

2022 Q2

  • Maria Emilia Dueñas, Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, England
  • María Monge, Centro de Investigaciones en Bionanociencias (CIBION) – Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina
  • Erika Mariana Palmieri, National Cancer Institute, USA
  • Louise Paton, University of Otago Christchurch, New Zealand
  • Justine Nicole Raeber, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Rosangela Silva Santos, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

2022 Q1

  • Lisa Hahnefeld, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
  • Seren Hamsici, University of Oklahoma, USA
  • Charlotte Hutchings, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Aishwarya Jala, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research: Guwahati, India
  • Silvia Radenkovic, Mayo Clinic, USA

2021 Q4

  • Gina Barbosa, Central Mindanao University, Philippines
  • Federica Fiorini, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, France
  • Erin Humphries, University of Sydney Australia
  • Manasi Kamat, University of Florida, United States
  • Stephanie Rankin-Turner, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States
  • Khawla Seddiki, Université Laval, Canada