Emanuel Rosen Fellowship
An annual clinical fellowship
Applications are now open - Deadline: 30 June 2026
To honour a lifetime of clinical innovation and transformative impact on cataract and refractive surgery, ESCRS is launching the Emmanuel Rosen Fellowship—celebrating the surgeon who helped ignite the Society’s founding and growth, co-launched the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery with ASCRS, established EuroTimes, and championed advances from intraocular lenses and phacoemulsification to laser refractive surgery, all while serving patients across the NHS and in private practice. The Fellowship of €60,000 is to allow the applicant to work abroad at a centre of excellence for clinical experience in the field of cataract and refractive surgery, anywhere in the world, for 1 year.
The Emanuel Rosen Fellowship is a clinical education opportunity for young ophthalmologists who have finalised their training in ophthalmology and who are willing to increase their knowledge and/or surgical skills in anterior segment surgery (cataract, cornea or refractive). Applicants must be young ophthalmologists who are full members of the ESCRS (this will include only ophthalmologists working in Europe by definition and also exclude trainees ) who are in their second year of sub-specialty experience in cataract, cornea or refractive surgery.
The successful applicant for the Fellowship is announced at each ESCRS Annual Congress, to start the following year.
The Emanuel Rosen Fellowship only accepts clinical fellowship applications, for research fellowships please see the Peter Barry Fellowship.
Evaluation Criteria
Applications should contain and will be assessed based on:
|
Criterion |
Details: |
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Applicant Experience |
A CV including publications, research activities, Awards. Which should indicate clearly the applicants experience in ophthalmology including surgical experience |
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Letter of intent |
of 1-2 pages, outlining which centre you wish to attend and why |
|
Letter of recommendation from head of department |
Supporting the application and outlining impact that the training will have on the home centre and/or region |
|
Letter of support from potential host |
Indicating that they are willing to host the applicant |
Please note: ESCRS cannot accept applications from the following countries which are subject to financial sanctions:
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- Cuba
- Iran
- North Korea
- Syria
- Venezuela
- Crimea
- Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia
Fellowship timeline
Applications for the Fellowship will open in April and close in June 2026.
Applications will be partially blinded to avoid unconscious bias.
Upon receipt of the proposal, ESCRS staff will confirm whether a full application has been submitted and that the applicant is eligible as per the criteria presented above. All applications with administrative fails will be contacted and with a request to complete the application. Should the applicant(s) not fulfil this, the applications will be discarded and not submitted to the expert panel for evaluation. Applicants of these discarded applications will be immediately informed about the rejection.
Eligible applications will be considered by the expert panel against the quality and relevance of the proposed clinical training programme. Reviewers will score applications (with a maximum of 60 points) and add their comments on the proposal within a review form. Factors considered for the evaluation of the applicants are:
- Applicant experience (including publications, research activities, Awards, surgical experience)
- Letter-of-intent (aims, cost to benefit relation, post-fellowship plans)
- Feasibility of the candidate to secure a license to practice medicine in the host country on time to start the fellowship
- Relevant local language requirements to support capability to work in the host country
- Letter of recommendation from Head of department within current institution and the impact that the training will have on the home centre and/or region.
- Letter of support from potential host institution indicating that they are willing to host the applicant
The applications will then be ranked by the returned score, ratified by the panel and then the Education Committee, before the candidates are informed.
After the candidate has accepted the offer, an agreement will be drawn up for signature by the candidate and ESCRS. Please review the template agreement here and therefore confirm on application that you accept and understand the terms. Fellowship Agreement Template
The Fellowship winner(s) is/are to be announced during the ESCRS Annual Congress.
The Fellowship should start the following calendar year and is dependent on national licensing to practice in that country.
The fellow will submit a fellowship completion report upon completion of the fellowship, signed by the Fellowship host Supervisor.
Every publication of work produced while in receipt of an Emanuel Rosen Fellowship, as well as after the end of the Fellowship, provided that it is the result of work done during the fellowship, must acknowledge the support given by ESCRS.
It is recommended that any publications be submitted to the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (JCRS) in the first instance and if they are published there, up to one paper will be made freely available for all to read at no charge to the authors.
How to apply
Applicants must first complete the online Emanuel Rosen Fellowship application linked on this page. Any queries should be sent to escrs@escrs.org
All required information is contained within the form.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application following the review process. This may take 3-4 weeks.