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ABOUT THE BASIC RESEARCH GRANT

The grant aims to encourage exploratory, translational or developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of new clinical approaches. Therefore, this grant is directed towards basic and translational science and novel ideas/techniques in hand surgery, rather than studies on clinical series of patients.

AWARD

€10,000 award for a one-year grant.

The deadline to apply for a Basic Research Grant is 15 February 2026

ELIGIBILITY

  • Applicant must be an active member of a FESSH affiliated national organization
  • Residents, fellows and consultants may apply, however in the selection process a focus will be on promoting younger applicants with strong and promising projects.
  • Members of the Research Committee cannot apply for funding either as a principal investigator, co-investigator, or sponsor.
  • There is no limit on the number of applications submitted from each institution
  • Re-submissions are allowed.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

The Basic Research Grant application is for a one-year €10,000 award.  Start date should be listed no earlier than 1 December 2025 and must begin by 31 March 2026.

Download the FESSH Research Grant Application Template, fill out and save as a PDF (name your file: lastname_grant_year.pdf) and submit to researchgrant@fessh.com. Make sure that all requirements are fulfilled and that supporting documents are attached to the submission in the same PDF file as the grant application (only submit one PDF file per application).

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

Letter of Support from your Department Chair or Division Head.  The purpose of this letter is to verify that the researcher will have time and resources to complete the project in a timely fashion.

Documentation that confirms that the proposed project has been approved by regional Ethical Boards and/or Animal Care Committee.

CV (max 4 pages) including up to 20 most important publications, relevant to the project.

Submit any questions by email to researchgrant@fessh.com. Applicants will be informed of their application status by  2 March 2026.

FOLLOW-UP REPORTING

Investigators receiving grants are expected to make a progress report by 30 September 2026 in addition to a final report once the one-year term of the grant has expired. A final report including a listing of all presentations and publications resulting from the project must be submitted no later than 31 March 2027.  All funds not used in the study should be returned to FESSH.

Progress Report Outline

  • Grant name and year awarded
  • Project Title and date of the grant period
  • PI Name
  • Summary of specific aims and progress made so far

Please also include the following:

  • List of publications originating from the grant (include date and name of publication)
  • List of presentations resulting from this study (name of organization, date, type [oral/poster])
  • Additional funding received or applied for, related to this study (include funding source and total amount)

PUBLICATION AND FURTHER FUNDING

We encourage the awardees to present their results at the FESSH Annual Meeting the year after the grant was awarded. In the case of publication presenting or citing research funding credit is to be noted by footnote that the project was supported totally or partially by funds from FESSH.

PAYMENT OF THE GRANT

The amount of the Basic Research Grant will be paid to the winner at the beginning of the research right after the Basic Research Grant Acceptance Letter has been signed by the winner. Here you can read the Acceptance Letter.

WINNERS

Title of project: Wood biocomposite for manufacturing osteosynthesis implants

Winner: Dr Vadims Nefjodovs from the Microsurgery Centre of Latvia, Riga Stradins University

Dr Nefjodovs’ highly innovative research project is about a woodbased biocomposite for manufacturing osteosynthesis implants. Congratulations!

The Research Committee is especially happy to support projects with focus on sustainable solutions.

Title: Automated detection, localization and treatment of distal radius fractures with a convolutional neural network

Winner: Marco Keller, University of Basel, Switzerland

Dr Keller’s goal is to build a user-friendly application, consisting of a multi-modal convolutional neural network which will detect fractures, and support treating physicians along the decision-making process in the treatment of wrist trauma patients in the emergency room. The artificial convolutional neural network will be used to analyze data from conventional X-rays, CT scans and clinical information to provide a synthesis of and treatment of distal radius fractures in daily hospital routine.

Title: Bone marrow adipocytes: Unrecognized regulators of pathological bone remodelling in carpometacarpal osteoarthritis of the thumb

Winner: Dr Mauro Maniglio from Lausanne University Hospital

The FESSH Research Committee is happy to announce that the winner of the 2022 FESSH Basic Research Grant is Dr Mauro Maniglio from Lausanne University Hospital  with the project “Bone marrow adipocytes: Unrecognized regulators of pathological bone remodelling in carpometacarpal osteoarthritis of the thumb”. The RC motivation for choosing Dr Maniglio was:

“Dr Maniglio’s project is directed towards studies on obesity-associated OA, including measuring systemic adipokines and their association with clinical or radiographic joint features in humans. His research is focused on subchondral bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and its role as a key regulator of bone turnover in regulating osteosclerosis and OA. The projects pre-clinical approach that aims to find a translational role in identifying new mechanisms that can be utilized novel viable treatment options in CMC OA. Altogether, Dr Maniglio has documented sincere interest in hand surgery and basic science, why we believe that he is an excellent candidate for this grant.”

Basic Grant_Mauro Maniglio_2022_Bone marrow adipocytes_v1.0

Basic Grant_Mauro Maniglio_publication

Dr van der Stok, the Netherlands

Congratualtion to the team of the winning basic research project from Delft, the Netherlands!

Dr van der Stok’s project on developing a new treatment for advanced Kienböck’s disease is awarded the 2021 FESSH Basic Research Grant. The project utilizes patient-specific 3D-printed lunate prosthesis models to replace the collapsed lunate bone and restore wrist kinematics. Advanced techniques that are increasingly used to to mirror contralateral bone structures are used to design the patient specific implants. Placed in situ, these implants are assessed for functionality with the use of 4D CT scans. Dr van der Stok’s CV, where he has shown determination to be a strong future clinician-scientist and his interesting translational science project, makes him a good candidate for this grant.

The FESSH Basic Research Grant is €10.000.

Dr Ryan Trickett and his team – Cardiff University, UK

Dr Trickett´s project is on exploring the kinematics of the healthy thumb base; using a novel, first in human hand technique, combining high frame rate motion capture, bi-planar live fluoroscopy and MRI modeling on healthy volunteers. The project aims at combining these modalities to create a 3D reconstruction of this complex joint structure and its kinematics in various motions. Dr Trickett´s project is innovative and holds great promise in further understanding of the kinematics of the basal thumb joint, which may in turn give insights to the pathogenesis in thumb osteoarthritis. The project is a collaborative effort by a team from the University Hospital of Wales and Cardiff University.”

Title of project: Kinematics at the base of the normal thumb: An analysis of healthy thumbs combining bi-planar fluoroscopy, motion capture and 3D modeling.
Name of applicant: Ryan W Trickett

Position: Consultant Orthopaedic Hand and Wrist Surgeon

Principal investigator: Dr Gemma Whatling, doctor of Medical Engineering, Cardiff University
Academic degree: MBBCH MRCS MSc FRCS (Tr&Orth) MD Dip Hand Surg
Institution: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board & Cardiff University

Title of the best project in 2019: Optimisation Of An Ex-Vivo Limb Perfusion Protocol For Composite Tissue Transplantation

Winner: dr Kavit R Amin, Clinical Fellow in Plastic Surgery (MBBS, BSc (Hons)) and team led by James E Fildes from University of Manchester (UK)

The FESSH research Committee is happy that 15 strong applications from 9 countries competed for the first (2018-19) FESSH Research Grant Award. The winning project on “Optimisation Of An Ex-Vivo Limb Perfusion Protocol For Composite Tissue Transplantation” was from Dr Kavit R Amin from University of Manchester in UK.  The RC motivation for choosing Dr Amin was:

“Dr Amin’s project on optimisation of an ex-vivo limb perfusion protocol for composite tissue transplantation clearly exemplifies what we look for in the winner of the FESSH Research Grant. It is a clear cut translational research project, where an elegant animal model and pre clinical approach is used to solve an obvious clinical problem. The topic of limb allo-transplantation and improvement of graft preservation is very interesting and of obvious clinical relevance. Furthermore, Dr Amin’s strong CV, where he has proven to be a driven young clinician, with a sincere interest in science as Research fellow at the University of Manchester, makes him a good candidate for this grant.”

The results from Dr Amin’s research was presented at FESSH 2023 in Rimini.

Here you can read the Final report of dr Amin’s research project.