Clinical

Eligibility:

• Candidates must hold an MD or equivalent medical degree prior to application for the training programme. Having completed a relevant internship and residency is desirable, but candidates who have not yet completed internships or residencies are eligible to apply.
• Candidates with a specialty interest in neurology or any other field of medicine that is related and important to MS care and management are eligible (for instance, electrophysiology, physiatry/rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry, etc).
• In general, successful applicants will be less than 40 years of age at the time of application; however, there is no prohibition on applicants who are older, and exceptions under special circumstances will be considered.
• IMPORTANT: This program is primarily targeted for applicants from less developed countries where MS is a prevalent disease, to provide the opportunity for clinical training in a European setting where MS is a focus.
• Candidates and their mentors must affirm that there will be no language barriers that will impede the training experience.

Clinical Training Location:

• The Clinical Training Fellowship period must be spent in a European clinic or clinical research centre focused on MS.
• For those candidates who are citizens of European countries, the site of training should, in most circumstances, be located in a different European country from that of the fellow’s citizenship, to help facilitate cross-border exchange and communications; exceptions will be considered under special circumstances.
• The prospective fellow must determine in advance the Clinical Training Programme location and identify a proposed mentor who will be supporting the training period, all of which will be considered along with the fellow’s own qualifications, in the review and selection process.
• The mentor and his/her institution must provide certification that the proposed training fellow will be allowed to undertake patient care in the institution, given that in most situations it is expected that the candidate’s medical education will have taken place in a different country from the training site.

Term:

• Clinical Training Fellowships of 3 months, 6 months or 1 year duration will be available.
• In most circumstances, Clinical Training Programme must be initiated (all paper work submitted to the programme administrator; move to training venue complete; work actively beginning) within 6 months of the receipt of an award
  letter from ECTRIMS. Any exceptions of this must be approved by the ECTRIMS fellowship program committee (fellowship@ectrims.eu).

Support:

• ECTRIMS will provide a stipend of €13’750 for a 3 month programme, €27’500 for a 6 month programme or €55’000 for a 1 year training program.
• ECTRIMS will also provide economy round-trip transportation from the successful candidate’s home location to the training site; travel expenses for family members cannot be provided.
• Payment from ECTRIMS will be made to the host institution, which will be considered the employer of the fellow. Stipends will be paid by the host institution to the fellow according to the institution’s own payment policies and schedules. Travel expenses for relocation to the training site can be reimbursed directly to the fellow, upon submission of receipts to ECTRIMS.
• The ECTRIMS award must be used by the institution to pay the fellow’s stipend (“salary”) at the appropriate rate for the fellow’s stage of training. Should there be any remaining funds, the remainder of the award can be used to support institutional social benefits (health care coverage, pension, other benefits) that may be required by the institution.
  If the total stipend plus benefits exceeds the amount provided by the ECTRIMS award, it is the responsibility of the institution/ mentor to supplement the ECTRIMS award to cover the entire required costs.
• The expected fellow’s total salary as well as the expected fellow’s total social benefits costs per year have to be indicated by the host institution.
• If the annual or prorated ECTRIMS award is not sufficient for the total required costs of the fellow (salary plus benefits), additional source(s) of funding that will be used to cover the total costs have to be listed.
• No additional support for travel, books, journal subscriptions, etc. will be provided.
• Fellows will be invited to attend the annual ECTRIMS Congress during the term of their training period. ECTRIMS will separately support travel and accommodations for Congress participation.

Activities During the Fellowship Period:

• The ECTRIMS Clinical Training Fellowship is intended to be a full-time MS clinical care training experience. This can include “hands on” clinical care under the guidance of the mentor, care-related course work in the training institutions, and may also include time involved in clinical research under the guidance of, and as deemed appropriate by, the mentor.
• The anticipated training programme, including any course work or assistance in a host institution’s clinical research, must be described in detail by the applicant and mentor in their proposals to ECTRIMS.

Changes in the Fellowship Programme:

• It is anticipated that the entire training period will be undertaken within the host institution as planned. However, in special circumstances, ECTRIMS will consider requests to transfer the fellowship to a new mentor or institution.Authorization must be requested and provided prior to any such change.Unexpended funds at the original host institution must be returned to ECTRIMS in the event of an approved institutional transfer, and the balance will be reissued to a new host institution by ECTRIMS.
• The ECTRIMS Clinical Training Fellowship is an individual award and is not transferable to a different fellow at the host institution.
• ECTRIMS must be notified of early termination of any fellow and unexpended funds at the host institution must be returned to ECTRIMS.
• ECTRIMS may revoke or terminate a Clinical Training Fellowship early if the fellow is unable to carry out the training as planned, if a mentor requests termination because of unsatisfactory performance by the fellow, or in the event of cause established by due process of law or as a consequence of an institutional review committee’s determination of fraud or malfeasance.

Reporting:

• Fellows and their mentors are required to provide report of the training experience at its conclusion due within 30 days of the completion of the training programme. Needed forms for completing the reporting will be provided by ECTRIMS near the time of the end of the fellowship.

Post-Fellowship Follow-Up:

• After the training fellowship period, it is desirable for the fellow to return to his/her original home institution for employment, to the extent possible.
  Post-fellowship career plans should be detailed as part of the application process.
• ECTRIMS Clinical Training Fellows will be required to maintain contact with the ECTRIMS Secretariat, so that post-training career paths can be tracked, to assist with overall programme evaluation.

ECTRIMS Clinical Training Fellowships will be awarded in a competitive review process conducted by members of the ECTRIMS Clinical Training Review Committee. Applications will be evaluated based on the:

• candidate qualifications, educational history and evaluation of career plans
• qualifications and characteristics of the proposed training mentor and host institution
• the nature of the proposed clinical training plan, including any course work or clinical research that is anticipated
• quality of letters of endorsement from the proposed mentor and from referees at the fellow’s home institution, etc.

All other conditions being satisfied, priority will be given to applicants from developing countries.

To these ends, the fellowship application should include:

Part 1: provided by the candidate

1. A completed online application, in English, available from the ECTRIMS website (www.ectrims.eu) including demographics of the candidate, her/his past experience, goals for training and future career plans.
2. An abbreviated curriculum vitae of the applicant including bibliography of any relevant publication not to exceed 5 pages (You must use the form “biographical sketch” provided by ECTRIMS, available in the online fellowship application system.)
3. Applicant’s career plans (not to exceed 1 page.)
4. A clinical training programme description, to be no longer than 6 pages.
5. Applicant’s proof (e.g. certificate) of local language knowledge.

Part 2: supporting materials provided directly to ECTRIMS by others

The following additional items must be submitted electronically to fellowship@ectrims.eu by 1 December annually. These should be submitted as confidential documents and should NOT be submitted with the materials requested in Part 1. Please be sure to ask referees to clearly identify the NAME of the applicant on all pages of his/her letters.

1. From the proposed mentor: Letter of support from the proposed training mentor, with special reference to interactions he/she has had with the proposed fellow in planning for the training period and with details of the clinical training programme that will be provided to the candidate. Certification that the proposed fellow will be able to undertake clinical care training and activities at the training institution must be provided by the mentor. A current abbreviated curriculum vitae and bibliography (no more than 5 pages) for the proposed mentor should be included. The form “biographical sketch” provided in the online fellowship application system should be used. The applicant should send this form to the mentor.
2. From the training institution:
   1) Letter of support from the department chair (or other relevant institutional official) at the proposed host institution accepting the proposed fellow, should a fellowship be awarded;
   2) Certification from the training institution accepting the terms of the ECTRIMS fellowship and payments. The necessary Form is available from the online application system; the applicant should forward this form to the institution for completion and submission to ECTRIMS.
3. From other referees: At least three letters of reference from professionals acquainted with the proposed fellow, from his/her home institution or elsewhere, that address the fellow’s qualities and likelihood for success in clinical career focused on MS. If applicable, a letter from the home institution should be included, indicating that the fellow will be welcomed back to the institution and the nature of the position that will be available, once the fellowship period has been concluded.

The application, CV/bibliography and research project outline are to be submitted by the applicant to the ECTRIMS Fellowship Administrator using the online application by 1 December of each year.

Mentor letter plus CV and institutional and referee support letters and forms are to be submitted SEPARATELY as confidential documents to the ECTRIMS Fellowship Administrator (fellowship@ectrims.eu) by 1 December of each year.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

The ECTRIMS Fellowship Review Committee will review all proposals during the early winter of each year; notification of the review outcomes will be made by the end of March of each year, to facilitate logistics involved in relocation by the following fall of each academic year.

For questions and further information, please contact the ECTRIMS Fellowship Administrator at: fellowship@ectrims.eu.

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