The Rules of the FECAVA LABOKLIN Travel Bursary

The idea

To reflect the fact that modern companion animal veterinary medicine has to be seen in a global and no longer in a regional or national perspective, the FECAVA  LABOKLIN Travel Bursary  is an initiative to support  two regional groups of practicing small animal veterinary surgeons from two different parts of Europe to visit each other for a few days to see how their colleagues are practicing, to see and appreciate the different culture of their colleagues and to participate ideally in a joint CE event. 

How does it work?

The bursary will be granted once a year and will be administered by the FECAVA.
The recipients of the bursary will be announced once a year at the FECAVA Euro Congress.
A deadline for applications will be set two months before the Congress to give the representatives of FECAVA and LABOKLIN sufficient time to choose the recipients.
Interested regional groups of practicing companion veterinarians would have to find a suitable group of colleagues in another part of Europe who are interested to host their visitors for a few days and who are willing to travel to their guests in a return visit. A good starting point for an exchange would be personal contacts made at the FECAVA Euro Congress or other international CE events, the FECAVA Facebook site or other forms of social media to name just a few.
The two parties would have to submit a joint application as an e-mail in English to the FECAVA Secretary (vet@virginvet.co.uk). The application has to detail in not more than 500 words who is going to take part in the exchange (names and personal backgrounds) , how the applicants are planning to organise the exchange , how the initial contact had been made between the groups and what the participants are hoping to learn from the exchange. The applicants might have to submit further details or information on request by the awarding committee. All applicants have to agree that their application details can be used in publications of FECAVA or in promotional material of the sponsor of the bursary (LABOKLIN GmbH). 
All applications will be collected by the FECAVA Secretary or by an appointed FECAVA Director, who will draw up a short list of not more than six joint applications.
A joint committee of the LABOKLIN GmbH and the FECAVA will choose a recipient for the bursary before each annual Euro Congress. The committee’s decision is final and no explanions will be given why an application has been successful or not.
The recipient of the Bursary will be announced at the Euro Congress and the winner will receive 1000,- €  with the expectation to conduct the first exchange visit in not more than 6 months and the return visit in not more than 12 months after the date of the announcement.
In order to receive the second part of the Bursary the winning pair has to submit a report of 300 -500 words in English and photographic documentation of the exchange which again has to be made available for publication by FECAVA and the sponsor.

Here the necessary legal bit

Neither FECAVA nor LABOKLIN are the organisers of the exchange journeys nor can they be held responsible for any damage, injury or loss that might occur during the program. The Bursary is merely meant as a financial support for a privately organised and conducted undertaking. All participants are responsible for their own travel insurance, visas and other documentation necessary to travel to a foreign country.

…and finally

The exact use of the funds of the awarded bursary is subject to the judgement and decision of the exchange organisers.  It might for example be used towards travel expenses, for accommodation cost of the visitors, for a joint dinner or a joint cultural event.

An example how the FECAVA LABOKLIN Travel Bursary might work

Veterinarian A from Copenhagen meets veterinarian B from Athens at a workshop on Feline Medicine at a FECAVA Euro Congress. During the workshop and in the lunch break they are discussing different aspects of their daily working routine and how feline medicine is practiced in their countries. Both are working in busy small animal clinics and they know a fair number of local colleagues with whom they meet from time to time.
They agree to apply for the FECAVA Travel Bursary with four colleagues from each town. They write in their application who they are, how they met initially and how they are planning to organise their visits.
Shortly after having been granted the bursary the group of Greek veterinarians is travelling to Copenhagen where they stay for a long weekend with their hosts. On Friday they spend the whole day together with their hosts in their clinics, observing how a range of different cases is treated in Denmark. On Saturday morning all hosts and visitors meet at one clinic and take part in a workshop on Feline Dermatitis. In the evening they explore the Danish capital and have a joint visit to the Tivoli. The next morning is spend with more sightseeing before the Greek visitors are heading home.
The funds of the bursary were spent on flight expenses and on the cost for the visits of the sights in Copenhagen.

Three months later the small group of Danish visitors arrives in Athens, where they in turn stay at their hosts. A joint dinner at a restaurant in the Plaka gets everybody off to a good start.  The next morning is spent at the clinics of the Greek hosts and the whole group meets again in the afternoon for a visit of the Acropolis. The next morning is again spend with the observation of daily small animal practice at the hosts’ clinics and in the afternoon the national  branch of the bursary’s sponsor has arranged a talk on new developments in Feline Internal Medicine, which is followed by another joint meal. The final morning is used for some more sightseeing in Athens.
The two parties write up a short summary of their visits, add a few photos and submit these to the FECAVA Secretary to have the second part of the bursary released.
These funds were again used for some of the flight expenses, for the dinner on the first night and for the entrance fees for the historical sights.

For further information regarding the FECAVA LABOKLIN Travel Bursary please contact your national FECAVA Director or the FECAVA Secretariat on ulrike@fecava.org .