Every year the APH research programs have funding available for junior researchers to go to international conferences, work visits abroad and other forms of travelling for academics. Awardees of these travel grants are given the opportunity to present their work and meet fellow researchers.

Marketa Ciharova (PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology at VU Amterdam) and Daphne Boucherie (PhD candidate in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Amsterdam UMC) both wrote a blog on their travels!

Marketa Ciharova - Mental Health Junior Travel Grant 2022

"Thanks to the Amsterdam Public Health research institute Junior Travel award, I had the chance to present my research at the 11th scientific meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. The meeting took place from the 18th to the 21st September 2022 in a beautiful environment of the University Club of the University of Pittsburgh. Besides the wonderful experience of presenting my first poster, the visit was also my first in-person international conference and my very first trip to the United States.

I myself had a great time meeting other attendees. The conference created awesome opportunities for networking by organizing a gala at the museum of the most famous Pittsburgh native, Andy Warhol, as well as an early-career-researcher evening. Thanks to these events, I managed to meet researchers from all over the world, including the US, Ireland or the UK, among others, as well as to bond with my own colleagues more.

One of my dreams-come-true was also to get to know academics from the Black Dog Institute in Sydney, Australia, where I am planning to undergo my research stay next year. Finally, the conference contacts did not disappear in the moment when the lecture room doors shut down.

In conclusion, my first international conference was a blast – thanks to its content, location and super-friendly attendees. I would recommend any researcher to join such an event. The travel can be long and days full of lectures may be exhausting. However, thanks to all the great motivation to work on your research which you acquire at such as conference it is definitely worth the effort!"

Daphne Boucherie - Personalized Medicne Junior Travel Grant 2022

"With the APH Personalized Medicine Grant I have visited the OHBM conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom, from June 18th-23rd. During the conference, there was a focus on sustainability, which meant that all venues were walking distance from each other. Pretty neat!

The first day of the conference consisted of Educational Courses. I decided to follow a course on network analysis using graph theory, to learn more about the analysis of my fMRI data. The rest of the week was a scientific whirlwind of early morning sessions (at 8 AM, but still managed to go to these most days!), insightful talks, inspiring keynote lectures, lots of in-depth discussions during the poster sessions, and of course a very “gezellig” amount of food and drinks during the social events organised by the OHBM.

It was really inspiring to see so many colleagues in real-life and to meet other researchers working (or struggling) with similar techniques, and sharing ideas and insights into data acquisition and analysis. I definitely learned a lot and met some lovely and inspiring new people. Also, visiting Glasgow is definitely a recommendation. Special thanks to Personalized Medicine to assist me with some travel expenses, would definitely do it all again."