EFIC is delighted to announce the winners of the first EFIC National Poster Prize, recognising outstanding posters presented at national scientific meetings held in 2025.
As this was the first edition of the Prize, we were pleased to receive strong entries from across our Chapters, a promising start for a new initiative that we look forward to growing in future editions. The review panel was impressed by the quality of the submissions and is optimistic about the Prize’s future.
The panel originally set out to award a single winner, uncertain whether the entries received would warrant separate clinical and basic science prizes. Following a thorough review process, two very strong contenders emerged, one in clinical research and one in basic science, and the panel decided to award both.
EFIC National Poster Prize Winners 2026
Basic science
Laura Klinger (Austria), “Novel insights into Astrocyte-Neuron interactions: Astrocytogenic synaptic depression as a central mechanism for modulating nociception”
Clinical
Juliette Van Eycken (France), “Sex Differences in Pain Memory and Contextual Processing: A Virtual Reality Study of Pain Conditioning”
The panel reviewing the entries this year was made up of:
Prof. Thomas Graven Nielsen, EFIC Working Group Chair for Grants and Prizes
Prof. Luis Garcia Larrea, EFIC President
Prof. Esther Pogatzki-Zahn, EFIC Research Committee Chair and President-Elect
Prof. Daniel Ciampi de Andrade, EFIC2027 Scientific Programme Committee Chair
Both winners will receive free registration for #EFIC2027 in Glasgow, where they will be presented with their award on stage and offered a place in the oral presentation programme, presenting their poster to senior research leaders from across Europe.
The EFIC National Poster Prize will run again for posters presented in 2026, with further details to follow. We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to seeing even more national Chapters take part in the next edition.