This prize was originally established by Merck in conjunction with PANLAR over 10 years ago. I was asked at that time (Dr. Espinoza) to oversee the process to select the awardee, task which I took as an honor and which I have continued to perform until this year. After a gap of a couple of year, the award was re-established in 2009 under the sponsorship of Abbott (now Abbvie). Most recently, however, the award has been sponsored solely by PANLAR.

 

 

Categories.

 

Two award categories were established: Basic and Clinical Sciences. When only applications from one category were submitted, the entire award fund were disbursed to the awardee (USD 15,000.00). Otherwise, each awardee received $10,000.00.

 

 

Time-table.

 

Yearly, the process has entailed the following:

1. Applications Open May 19th, 2017
2. Applications deadline June 12nd, 2017
3. Award announcement July 18th, 2017
4. Award Ceremony Sep 9th In Lima, Perú.

 

 

The application.

 

 

Only rheumatologists working in Latin America were eligible. The application itself, has been constituted by several components which have been scored individually in a weighted form. All the components of these applications had to be written in English. These components and their weight towards the final score have been the following:

1. CV (4-page limit) 10%
2. Letters of recommendation (2)* 5%
3. Personal statement (1-page limit) 5%
4. Work accomplished (2-page limit)  10%
5. Research project (10-page limit excluding references) 70%

Total 100%

 

Letter of support from the applicant’s National Society.

Please send your full application to secretaria@panalr.org and galarcon@uab.edu by May 31st, 2017.