Scholarships and Awards

It is in the gift of the Association to issue a number of grants, scholarships and awards in various categories to allow access to conference and as prizes for abstracts and research, all of which are designed to support the objects of the association. BHIVA offers two prestigious prizes for the best oral presentation and best poster research presentation to junior presenters under the age of 35 at the Annual Conference in the spring.

There are a number of community awards available to attend BHIVA conferences. Community registration places are awarded at each BHIVA conference in liaison with the Community Representative on the Executive Committee and 45 community registrations were allocated to attend the Annual Conference in Dublin and 39 for the Autumn Conference in London. Community Scholarships to attend the Annual Conference are awarded to up to 10 UK-based community workers. These scholarships cover the conference registration fee and include up to £100 towards travel expenses, a maximum of £70 per night for up to three nights’ accommodation and are allocated by the Community Representative on the Executive Committee. Community scholarships were allocated to nine delegates to attend the Annual Conference in Dublin.

The Brian Gazzard Lectureship in HIV Medicine is presented at a BHIVA conference. The applicant must be under the age of 45 and can be clinically or non-clinically qualified. The Lectureship award includes a £1,000 honorarium plus £100 towards travel expenses and Professor Brian Gazzard judges the submissions.

BHIVA Science Scholarships are awarded at the BHIVA Annual Conference with awards for up to 10 delegates who are studying for a PhD or MD and have their abstracts accepted as an oral or poster presentation at the conference. These scholarships cover the conference registration fee and include up to £100 towards travel expenses, a maximum of £70 per night for up to three nights’ accommodation and are awarded by the Conferences Subcommittee. Science scholarships were allocated to five delegates to attend the Annual Conference in Dublin. BHIVA also awards a trophy at the Annual Conference as a prize for the best oral presentation, which is judged by an expert scientific panel.

In addition to the BHIVA awards listed above, the sponsors support a number of scholarships and prizes. The Abbott Travelling Scholarships are awarded in collaboration with BHIVA and the St Stephen’s AIDS Trust, providing scholarships to practising HIV doctors from resource-poor countries to travel to the UK for training purposes, with the objective of increasing their understanding of the treatment and management of HIV and to disseminate this information and experience when they return to their country of origin. Successful candidates are invited to participate in a training programme, which runs for approximately 3 weeks and includes a placement at a UK centre, as well as attendance at the BHIVA Annual Conference. Scholarships were awarded to four clinicians in 2005. Bristol-Myers Squibb Scholarships are awarded to junior grade applicants under the age of 35 at the BHIVA Annual Conference for the best abstract presentations as judged by an expert scientific panel. Scholarships of £1,000 each were awarded in 2005 to the four best oral presentations, and the two best poster presentations were awarded £500 each. Gilead Sciences offers an award of £2,000 to a Specialist Registrar in training, which is presented at the Autumn Conference for a research project with HIV as its central focus.

BHIVA also supports the registration fees of a number of delegates from educational, community and affiliated HIV organisations to assist them to exhibit at BHIVA conferences.

The BHIVA Research Award is open, through competitive application, to all BHIVA members for research projects that impact on the clinical care and management of people living with HIV in the UK. Up to £20,000 per annum is available, to be distributed amongst the successful applicants according to the quality of the submitted proposals. The BHIVA Education and Scientific Subcommittee judges the submissions and the results are announced at the BHIVA Autumn Conference.

Applications for grants or funding for research or other projects made directly to the Association are reviewed by the BHIVA Executive Committee at its meetings and considered based on merit and their relevance to the objectives of BHIVA.

For details of conference-related awards, please go to the Conferences and Events section of the website.