Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: Germany

The Eczema and Psoriasis Research Incubator will be held on September 16, 2026, adjacent to the ESDR annual meeting in Heidelberg, Germany. This workshop is designed to accelerate progress in the understanding and treatment of psoriasis and eczema by fostering cross-disease and cross-disciplinary collaboration with patients, doctors, and researchers. Through interactive small-group challenge labs, participants will co-develop innovative research ideas with the potential to inform future multicenter studies, biomarker discovery, and precision medicine approaches. Dedicated opportunities for early-career researchers to showcase their work and facilitate their involvement in collaborations will ensure equitable participation and strengthen the global research pipeline. Open to international attendees, this incubator is intended as a launchpad for collaborative science, generating new ideas, networks, and frameworks to advance patient-centered skin research.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

The Vulvar Dermatology Research Consortium (VDRC) will host a special two-hour Young Investigators Symposium as part of its Annual Meeting on Thursday, March 26th, 2026, in Denver, Colorado. This event is designed for medical students, residents, dermatologists, and other physicians, patients, industry partners, and scientists interested in vulvar skin problems. Participants will share research, gain insights from vulvar skin experts, and connect with others in the field. Ultimately, this event will facilitate collaboration on vulvar skin health research, to promote improved outcomes for people living with vulvar skin conditions.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

The 2026 Epithelial Stem Cells and Niches Gordon Research Conference and Seminar will be held August 22–28, 2026, in Spain. It will bring skin researchers together with leading stem cell biologists working on other organ systems to cross-pollinate ideas and technologies. Interactions and collaborations that emerge from this conference will accelerate discovery in the skin and support the development of new cures for skin diseases. The meeting includes a dedicated session for trainees and will support early-career researchers through travel grants, mentoring, and short talk opportunities.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: Switzerland

The SKINTEGRITY 2027 conference will take place from January 28-30, 2027, in Davos, Switzerland, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the collaborative research consortium SKINTEGRITY.CH. It brings together basic scientists, clinicians and engineers from academia or industry, whose work helps to understand, diagnose and treat poorly healing wounds, inflammatory skin diseases and skin cancer. It will feature presentations from world leaders in these fields as well as shorter presentations, which will mainly be given by early career researchers. Additional research highlights will be presented in the form of a poster. This international and interdisciplinary conference will promote collaborations across disciplines, educate the next generation of skin researchers and clinical dermatologists, rheumatologists and surgeons, and will help to turn new scientific discoveries into better diagnostic approaches and treatments for patients.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: United Kingdom

Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), such as hair-pulling, skin-picking and nail-biting are common. Around 5% of people experience repeated urges that can cause serious physical and emotional distress. Despite this, BFRBs are poorly understood, often dismissed, and rarely recognised in healthcare, leaving many without support. New research shows that BFRBs may be driven by interactions between the skin, brain and immune system, linking them to conditions like chronic itch. To address this gap, we will hold an international conference in 2026, bringing together scientists, clinicians and people with lived experience. The event will explore why these behaviours develop, how they are best managed, and how policy and practice can be improved. Alongside the scientific programme, a community day run by BFRB UK & Ireland will provide education and safe spaces for sharing experiences. The conference will raise awareness, spark collaborations and strengthen support for those affected.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: United Kingdom

The skin is our largest organ, and it is susceptible to a wide range of diseases. While we know that our genes play a crucial role in determining our risk for these diseases, we still have much to learn about which specific genes are involved and how they contribute to disease development. In recent years, there have been groundbreaking developments in skin research that have expanded the possibilities to investigate skin cells and changes in genes and proteins. This event will bring together the world’s leading experts in skin genetics with scientists who are experts in understanding how genes work in the skin by pioneering new technologies.

The goal of this meeting, to be held in conjunction with the ESDR 2026 conference, is to spark new collaborations and share knowledge of datasets and methodologies, which will help us translate genetic discoveries into a better understanding of skin diseases and, ultimately, into new and more effective treatments.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The educational project will create a model for a biodiversity learning facility through a prototype, a 100 m2 gravel habitat for local plants and insects, and associated educational material developed with five schools in Glostrup. Combining landscape design and STEM methodology, it offers children aged 6-10 and their teachers an outdoor classroom to explore ecosystems through play, observation, and experiments. The goals are to strengthen biodiversity knowledge, curiosity, and scientific skills in early education. The project expects to reach 500 children and 30 teachers in Glostrup, with an overall aim of establishing a concept that can be replicated in other schools.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

This is an educational project for children aged 7-12, focused on the skin and its role as the body’s largest organ, its health, and common conditions. The cross-media initiative will create an illustrated tactile book which is developed into an e-book and audiobook, as well as podcasts, animations, and a small game, which are all interconnected and offer different ways of exploring and learning. The goal is to build children’s health literacy and stimulate their curiosity for science and understanding of skin biology. Target groups include children, parents, teachers, and venues such as libraries, science centers, and museums.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Ungdommens Naturvidenskabelige Forening organizes six summer camps where high school students explore science, health, and technology through hands-on experiments, lab work, and real-world problem-solving. The camps are run by volunteering university students who act as teachers and role models, fostering both learning and community. With around 300 expected participants, the project aims to strengthen young people’s interest and confidence in STEM fields and inspire future studies and careers in science. The camps are carried out in different regions across Denmark, at DTU, SDU, and AAU, and travel and accommodation are covered to promote equal access for students.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The project is a nation-wide public science engagement initiative in relation to the solar eclipse on 12 August 2026. Through live TV broadcasting, public events, and collaborations with primary and lower secondary schools on educational material, it will engage all of Denmark in the wonders of astronomy and astrophysics and expose them to relevant scientists and hands-on experiments.