The Spinal Research Institute (SRI) is pleased to announce the nine recipients of the 2026 SCI Research Collaboration Grants.

As part of SRI’s commitment to building research capability and strengthening international collaboration in spinal cord injury research, the grants support Early Career Clinicians and Researchers — including PhD candidates — who are presenting authors of accepted abstracts at the International Spinal Cord Society Annual Scientific Meeting.

This year’s recipients are based across Australia, Bangladesh, Colombia, India and Türkiye:

• Australia
  • Dr Jamie Ellis — Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
    • Building a stronger future for children with spinal cord injury
  • Dr Michaela Filipcikova — Griffith University
    • Turning community priorities into action
  • Rhianne Kerr — Western Sydney University
    • Co-designing better opportunities to be active
  • Shawna Power — Western Sydney University
    • Supporting meaningful roles after spinal cord injury
• Bangladesh
  • Shovan Parvez — Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed
    • Making assistive technology more accessible
  • Nafisa Sultana — Bangladesh Health Professions Institute
    • Making remote rehabilitation work in Bangladesh
• Colombia
  • María Fernanda Rosero Chamorro — Universidad del Valle
    • Bringing sexuality into comprehensive rehabilitation
• India
  • Manpreet Kaur — Indian Spinal Injuries Centre-Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences
    • Strengthening breathing and respiratory health after spinal cord injury
• Türkiye
  • Melisa Zengin — Istanbul Medeniyet University
    • Creating opportunities beyond rehabilitation

The grantees will attend ISCoS 2026 in Kuala Lumpur from 7–10 October, where they’ll present their work, exchange knowledge and connect with researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience from around the world.

International collaboration is essential to improving outcomes for people living with spinal cord injury. It brings diverse expertise and perspectives together, helps researchers address shared challenges, and creates opportunities for mentoring, multicentre studies, joint publications and new research partnerships.

For researchers with limited access to international networks, attending ISCoS can open doors to expertise, resources and collaborations that may not be available locally — strengthening research, accelerating the translation of evidence into practice, and increasing its potential to make a lasting difference in the lives of people with SCI.

Over the coming months, we’ll introduce each grantee and share more about their research, their experience at ISCoS, and the collaborations and longer-term outcomes made possible through the grant program.

The SCI Research Collaboration Grants are provided with the generous support of the SRI Patron’s Program Future Leaders of SCI Research initiative.