ICCA is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2024 ICCA/BestCities Global Alliance Incredible Impacts Award Seed Fund Grant. The International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS) was chosen as this year’s recipient. Their Global Access Fellowship Initiative earned them this recognition, and we are excited to present ICRP with the award at the closing ceremony of the 2024 ICCA Congress in Abu Dhabi.
“We are immensely proud to receive the Incredible Impacts Programme Seed Grant, which will drive our efforts in establishing the ICRS Global Access Fellowship as a legacy program cornerstone”, said Anneke Hibbel, Executive Director of ICRS. “This recognition highlights the importance of diversity and inclusion in our field and empowers us to extend our mission of democratizing knowledge to underrepresented regions around the world. We strive to have a lasting impact and are incredibly grateful that BestCities Global Alliance and ICCA recognise and support our initiative”.
ICRS will use the funds to facilitate access to association activities by delegates from developing countries or disadvantaged groups. The ICRS has developed the Global Access Fellowship, which is designed to foster diversity, equity and inclusion in education programmes for orthoregenerative medicine education.
As part of the programme, two delegates from underrepresented regions around the world will be able to attend a 2025 ICRS educational event, courtesy of ICRS. The organisation will also calculate and quantify the impact of delegate participation and use the results to recommend future partnerships and initiatives. The delegates will also receive a two-year membership to the ICRS.
“ICCA is excited to see ICRS using their Incredible Impacts Programme funding to help drive their mission forward through the Global Access Fellowship initiative”, said Senthil Gopinath, CEO of ICCA. “Not only will it give the Fellows selected the potential to improve patient outcomes in their host countries, but it also gives other participants the opportunity to learn from the global experience of the Fellows, expanding knowledge, understanding and collaboration. This is what the Incredible Impacts Programme is all about: promoting the long-lasting impacts of association meetings. We are delighted to congratulate ICRS as the recipient of the BestCities and ICCA Incredible Impacts Programme Seed Grant Award 2024."
The Incredible Impacts Programme celebrates the “beyond tourism” value of meetings by using a global platform to advocate for and advance their positive societal impact. IIP offers two cash awards each year – a main grant of $20,000 USD and a seed grant of $5,000 USD. The seed grant programme was introduced in 2023 and is distributed to an association in the early stages of formalising a legacy programme.