Maria Paz Grisales

Maria coordinates the International SCI (InSCI) study in Colombia analyzing the relationship between quality of health services and function in people with SCI. At the conference, Maria will connect with experts to build stronger evidence for low-resource settings.

Maria shares her experiences from the conference.

This generous grant has been instrumental in creating a critical opportunity to advance community engagement in spinal cord injury (SCI) research, a practice that is currently nascent in my country.

During the pre congress training and specific sessions at the ISCoS/NoSCoS meeting, I had the privilege of meeting global experts in this field. I learned firsthand about their successful strategies for engaging people with lived experience as genuine partners in research. Moving forward, we plan to leverage this knowledge by participating in a mentorship program specifically designed to develop strategies for including individuals with SCI as partners, allowing them to define research priorities and co-design future research protocols.

Furthermore, the conference provided me with the opportunity to participate in the biannual InSCI meetings. This attendance allowed me to significantly strengthen my research team’s relationships with other international participants and plan future research utilizing the invaluable data gathered from the InSCI survey. I also had the chance to attend Spinality, a night gathering that offered a profound and different perspective on the sexuality of my patients. It was incredibly educational, teaching me about available tools to support them in regaining intimacy and sexuality after their injury. Finally, the SRI Early Career Researcher Breakfast highlighted how this grant has previously helped recipients bolster their research careers and facilitated essential international cooperation.

I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity the Spinal Cord Research Collaboration Grant gave me to attend this year’s ISCoS/NoSCoS. I am confident that the knowledge and connections gained will be a catalyst for transforming SCI research in my country, leading to meaningful and relevant results for people living with spinal cord injury.