Early-career award for emerging health sciences researcher

Auckland Medical Research Foundation is pleased to continue to support postdoctoral research at the University of Auckland's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences' annual SUMMIT2021 symposium.

With topics ranging across a wide spectrum of health research fields, a record number of postdoctoral researchers demonstrated an impressive variety of technical skills and personal passion for their work.

The postdoctoral career stage is a critical time for early career researchers to establish themselves in their chosen field of study. Their work to rapidly produce and publish significant data while also planning for their next role is complicated by a common struggle to achieve salary and research funding. Limited money available in university, government or charitable programmes continues to stymie many promising researchers.

SUMMIT2021 and its awards offer an opportunity for postdoctoral researchers to set themselves apart in a competitive field.

Dr James McKeage received the AMRF Best Oral Presentation prize at SUMMIT2021

AMRF was pleased to again sponsor the Best Oral Presentation, a prize of $3,000 for conference travel, publication fees or related research costs, to Dr James McKeage from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute for his work "Needle-free capillary blood sampling using jet injection". He was praised for both his presentation style and innovative content.

Dr McKeage says, "It is an honour to be awarded the AMRF Best Research Presentation Award at SUMMIT 2021. This award is going to be extremely helpful in supporting me to build upon my research in the field of needle-free jet injection.

"I aim to use this opportunity to present my work to an international audience and seek out new collaboration to support the future directions of my research.

"These kinds of awards are vital for early career researchers as we look to build our careers and new avenues of research."

Highlights of the day included keynote speeches from Dr Joep de Ligt, Lead Scientist Bioinformatics & Genomics at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research: ESR and Dr Sarah-Jane Guild, Chief Scientific Officer at Kaha Sciences.