The International Neuromodulation Society (INS) is pleased to announce a competition for New Investigator Best Manuscripts in the area of Neuromodulation, and will offer up to four awards of a minimum of $2,500 each. The award(s) will be given in recognition of outstanding originality and ingenuity in the scientific work concerned with neuromodulation. All areas of neuromodulation will be considered in this competition. Both basic and clinical science will be encouraged for submission. 

Our aim is to encourage investigation of mechanisms of action. The current lack of information is impeding the approval of new treatments and preventing neuromodulators from improving the efficacy, safety, and applicability of existing treatments. The INS is very enthusiastic about this competition, because it believes it will encourage new investigators to invest their time and energy to make critically important contributions to the field of neuromodulation.

To qualify for the competition, each candidate must have completed training within the last five years or be within the first five years of his/her faculty appointment at the time of submission of the manuscript, nomination and supporting documents.

The nomination for the award will require the following documentation in addition to the manuscript:

• A letter from the department chair or supervisor needs to certify that the candidate meets the qualifications  
• A current curriculum vita
• Two letters of recommendation
• One recommendation must come from the immediate supervisor of the candidate  
• Since selection of the award recipient will be based on the review of a manuscript describing original work, he/she must be the first author. If the manuscript has additional co-authors, then the manuscript must be accompanied by a letter from the co-authors attesting to the significant contribution of the first author in the investigation described in the manuscript.

The best manuscripts will be chosen, through a review process, by an Awards Review Committee. The Committee is made up of outstanding basic and clinical scientists who have made important contributions to science and to neuromodulation.
The reviewers include:

• Tipu Aziz, MD, from Neurosurgery at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and Charing Cross Hospital in Oxford, England
• Warren Grill, PhD, from the Department of Bioengineering at Duke University
• Bengt Linderoth MD, PhD, from the Department of Neurosurgery at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden
• Richard North, MD, from the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University
• William D. Willis MD, PhD, from the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
• Robert D. Foreman, PhD, from the Department of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Award-winning manuscript(s) must be submitted to Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, the journal of the INS, and the official journal of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society.

Submission Deadline: June 30, 2009 
Please submit manuscripts and documentation to Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface via Manuscript Central at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ner
For inquiries, please contact INS@neuromodulation.com