The ESDR Future Leaders Academy in Dermatology is an annual educational event launched in 2011. It brings together highly gifted young scientists and renowned senior scientists from dermatological departments all over Europe and beyond for a 2.5 days meeting.
The goal of this initiative is to encourage excellent young dermatologists to further pursue their academic careers through guidance and mentoring of established scientists in the field.
All attendees give oral presentations of their work, attend lectures from senior scientists. Besides scientific sessions, there is a strong emphasis on encouraging attendees to network and to exchange ideas with their peers and mentors.
Alumni of the Academy organise a successful Future Leaders Symposium which takes place at the annual ESDR meeting in September.
The next ESDR Academy for Future Leaders in Dermatology will be held
from 6 to 8 November 2025
CLICK HERE for more information
Application period: 3 February - 17 March 2025
General Information
- The program is primarily open to European residents currently engaged in skin-related research (MD, PhD, Post-Doc, Resident etc).
- A LIMITED number of places will be made available for participants residing outside Europe.
- Participants must be 40 years old or under by 1 November of the year the FLA takes place. Exceptions may be made for career breaks, maternity/paternity leave etc.
- Applications are reviewed on scientific merit by the ESDR Scientific Program Committee.
- ESDR committees are also responsible for inviting senior faculty.
- ESDR covers accommodation costs for all participants and travel costs for ESDR members. If you are not a member you may apply prior to the Academy.
- Participants must commit to staying for the entire duration of the Academy and should travel alone.
- All participants give oral presentations of their work and be expected to attend mentoring events.
- Past participants are not eligible for consideration.
“ESDR Academy for Future Leaders in Dermatology: A Modern Success Story to Foster Young Academic Dermatologists and Skin Scientists“
Read the JID article here
“Looking Back to the Future: ESDR Academy for Future Leaders in Dermatology, 2011“
Read the JID article here
“ESDR Academy for Future Leaders in Dermatology: A Springboard for Career Achievement“
Read the JID article here
PREVIOUS FUTURE LEADERS ACADEMY
Translational innovation in Dermatology
10-12 October 2024, Uppsala, Sweden
Mentees: Sari Assaf, Shir Azrielant, Angelo Condorelli, Michela Di Filippo, Agnes Forsthuber, April Rose Foster,Elena Giusto, Gülcihan Gülseren, Franz Hilke, Moritz Hollstein, Sang Gyu Lee, Agata Lichawska-Cieślar, Marianne Løvendorf, Mirco Mastrangelo, Sheila McSweeney, Janan Mohamad, Lavanya Moparthi, Ruben Pereira, Emanuele Scala, Fiona Schedel, Elisabeth Schrumpf, Karoline Strobl, Karla Valdivieso Bermeo, Magdalena Żychowska
Chairs: Enikö Sonkoly (Sweden), Knut Schäkel (Germany)
Mentors: Katia Boniface (France), Sara Brown (UK), Leena Bruckner-Tuderman (Germany), Gareth Inman (UK), Fernando Larcher (Spain), Knut Schäkel (Germany), Enikö Sonkoly (Sweden), Ellen Van den Bogaard (Netherlands)
Invited Guest Speakers: Maria Kasper (Sweden), Fredrik Pontén (Sweden)
The Future Leaders Academy 2024 is generously supported through an educational grant by Johnson & Johnson and The LEO Foundation
New Avenues in Dermatology
2-4 November 2023, Madrid, Spain
Mentees:
Ali Al-Janabi, Theresa Benezeder, Natalie Bordag, Laura Calabrese, Michael Cangkrama, Lillia Cherneda, Philip Curman, Giovanni Damiani,Henry Grantham, Shahnawaz Jadeja, Young In Lee, Katharina Meier, Natasha Mitrevska, Cathal O’Connor, Peter Olah, Marieta Papanikolaou, Verena Raker, Ravi Ramessur, Maria Sanz Codina, Kristina Viiklepp, Roman Yaremkevych, Ahmad Yatim, Anissa Zaouak
Mentors:
Sandrine Dubrac, Kilian Eyerich, Chris Griffiths, Veli-Matti Kähäri, Sarolta Karpati, Neil Rajan, Lone Skov, Christoph Schlapbach,
Enikö Sonkoly, Rachel Watson
The Future Leaders Academy 2023 is kindly supported through an educational grant by
BUILDING CONNECTIONS WITHIN AND BEYOND DERMATOLOGY
27-29 October 2022, Valencia, Spain
Mentees:
Florence Assan, Chris Callewaert, Clarisse Ganier, Cristina Gómez Casado, Louise Injarabian, Daniel Johnston, Evelyn Kelemen, Nikolai Loft, Mari Løset, Roberto Maglie, Christina Martins, Alessia Paganelli, Elisabetta Palazzo, Levgenia Pastushenko, Marta Palomo Irigoyen, Alon Peled, Sam Polesie, Maanasa Polubothu, Jasper Pruessmann, Mariusz Sikora, Ankit Srivastava, Johanna Strobl, Georgios Theocharidis
Mentors:
Muzlifah Haniffa (Newcastle, UK), Michel Gilliet (Lausanne, Switzerland), Bernhard Homey (Düsseldorf, Germany), Edel O’Toole (London, UK), Knut Schäkel (Heidelberg, Germany), Christoph Schlapbach (Bern, Switzerland), Ines Sequeira (London, UK), Zoltan Szekanecz (Debrecen, Hungary)
The Future Leaders Academy 2022 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Incyte and Sanofi Genzyme
Back to the Future of Skin Science: 10th ESDR Future Leaders Academy
28-29 October 2021, Virtual Event
Mentees:
Wisam Alwan, Asli Bilgic, Liisa Blowes, Renata Bozó, Esteban Chacón-Solano, Linde de Wijs, Lucia Di Nardo, Dario Didona, Léa Dousset, Lukas Freund, Laura Huilaja, Lajos Kemény, Verena Lorenz, Julia-Tatjana Maul, Verena Moosbrugger-Martinz, Alexandros Onoufriadis, Manoj Pawar, Evgeniya Petrova, Jos Smits, Kelsey van Straalen
Mentors:
Hervé Bachelez, Leopold Eckhardt, Sabine Eming, Leopold Eckhardt David Kelsell, Kiarash Khosrotehrani, Caterina Missero, Enikö Sonkoly, Marta Szell, Rachel Watson
The Future Leaders Academy 2021 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Janssen and LEO Foundation
Inflammation at the gates
24-26 October 2019, Porto, Portugal
Mentees:
Malin Ahlström, Hanna Bonnekoh, Charles Cassius, Zsolt Dajnoki, Gabor Dobos, Ruben Ferrer, Irène Gallais Sérézal, Nathan Hawkshaw, Isabelle Hoorens, Christian Hünefeld, Norbert Kiss, Dimitra Koumaki, Kif Liakath-Ali, Irmina Michalek, Vijay Patra, Antonia Reimer, Daniela Robles-Espinoza, Emanuel Rognoni, Farzan Solimani , Anna Stochmal, Darryl Tio, Teresa Tsakok, Seçil Vural
Mentors:
Björn Andersson, Darren Ashcroft, Hervé Bachelez, Francesca Capon, Menno de Rie, Liv Eidsmo, Sabine Eming, Michel Gilliet, Alain Hovnanian, Andrea Szegedi, Marta Szell
The Future Leaders Academy 2019 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Celgene, Janssen and Lilly
Entrepreneurship in Dermatology
3-5 October 2018, Budapest, Hungary
Mentees:
Yuki Andersen, Stefan Blunder, Andrea Braun, Ioana Cosgarea, Judit Danis, Louise Gerbens, Lynda Grine, Serena Grossi, Christina Guttmann-Gruber, Zarif Jabbar-Lopez, Jihee Kim, Antonios, Kolios, Felix Lauffer, Dongqing Li, Janny Lommerts, Saeko Nakajima, Benedicte Oules, Patricia Peking, Cristina Pellegrini, Katrin Rietscher, Ines Sequeira, Morteza Seyed Jafari, Stephen Smith, Pierre Sohier, Eszter Szlavicz, Juul Van den Reek
Mentors:
Hervé Bachelez, Menno de Rie, Peter Florian, Chris Griffiths, Lajos Kemeny, Cath O’Neill, Carlo Pincelli, Marta Szell
The Future Leaders Academy 2018 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Almirall, Celgene, Janssen and Lilly
Bringing the Best of Investigative Dermatology Together
9-11 November 2017, Barcelona, Spain
Mentees:
Deepak Balak, Katia Boniface, Tjinta Brinkhuizen, Jeremy Di Domizio, Beatrice Dyring-Andersen, Sarah Hedtrich, Snehlata Kumari, Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, Chester Lai, Su Lwin, Mate Manczinger ,Tiago Matos, Yumi Matsuoka-Nakamura, Mark Mellett, Johanna Mihaly, Jan Nicolay, Hanna Niehues, Armanda Onderdijk, Olesya Pavlova, Ellie Rashidghamat, Fanny Rencz, Tiffany Scharschmidt, Attila Szollosi, Iana Turcan, Nina Van Beek, Mariena Van Der Plas, Zenas Yiu
Mentors:
Hervé Bachelez, Anna Balato, Frédéric Caux, Menno De Rie, Kamram Ghoreschi, Sue Gibbs, Chris Griffiths, Sirkku Peltonen, Luis Santamaria Babi, Marta Szell
The Future Leaders Academy 2017 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Celgene, Janssen, Lilly and Pfizer
Go for it – the many flavors of investigative dermatology
10-12 November 2016, in Madrid, Spain
Mentees:
Marta Bertolini, Marieke C. Bolling, Hanna Brauner, Alexander Egeberg, Martina Elias, Luise Erpenbeck, Laurence Feldmeyer, Johannes Griss, Joanna Jackow, Serena Lembo, Magnus Lynch, Andrei Mardaryev, Barbara Meier, Melba Munoz Roldan, Alexander Nyström, Florina Olaru, Florian Rambow, Pilvi Riihila, Lennart M. Roesner, Thomas Schmidt, Yuliya Skabytska, Peter C. Van Den Akker, Igor Vujic, Thomas Wiesner, Richard Woolf
Mentors:
Menno De Rie, Mario Fabri, Michael Hertl, Caterina Missero, Alexander Navarini, Thierry Passeron, Mona Stahle, Peter M Steijlen, Kerstin Steinbrink, Thomas Tueting
The Future Leaders Academy 2016 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Abbvie, Celgene, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis and Pfizer
Pioneering Skin Research
5-7 November 2015, in Rome, Italy
Mentees:
Lise Boussemart, Nicolò Brembilla, Matthew Brooke, Emmilia Dowlatshahi, Maria Feoktistova, Amy Foulkes, Laetitia Furio, Natalie Garzorz, Peter Arne Gerber, Gergely Groma, Sherief Janmohamed, Jennifer Kloepper, Jana Knuever, Josefin Lysell, Audrey Nosbaum, Attila Oláh, Manuela Pigors, Suzanne Pilkington, David Rafei-Shamsabadi, Reinhart Speeckaert, Keith Wu
Mentors:
Zsuzsanna Bata-Csorgo, Marcel Jonkman, Lionel Larue, Ralf Paus, Mauro Picardo, Matthias Schmuth, Alain Taieb, Giovanna Zambruno
The Future Leaders Academy 2015 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Abbvie, Celgene, Lilly, and Pfizer
6-8 November 2014 in Madrid, Spain
Mentees:
Emiliano Antiga, Anna Balato, Melika Behzad, Marie-Charlotte Brüggen, Timo Buhl, Matthew Caley, Liliana Cifuentes Gutierrez, Zsanett Csoma, Adèle De Masson, Moritz Felcht, Antoni Gostyński, Johan Jäderstad, Agnes Kinyó, Mary Laing, Jennifer Landsberg, Diana Panayotova-Dimitrova, Davide Pennino, Gabriela Petrof, Christian Posch, Christian Sadik, Christina Schellenbacher, Christoph Schlapbach, Hanna Siiskonen, Jacob Thyssen, Hessel van der Zee
Mentors:
Luca Borradori, Andrea Cavani, Pascal Joly, Sarolta Karpati, Branka Marinovic, Carien Niessen, Mauro Picardo, Jonathan Rees, Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek, Erwin Tschachler
The Future Leaders Academy 2014 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Abbvie, Celgene, Lilly and Pfizer
Challenges in Skin Biology
17-19 October 2013 in Florence, Italy
Mentees:
Ewout Baerveldt, Caroline Bosch-Voskens, Andrea Chiricozzi, Thomas Döbel, Franziska Eberle, Mehdi Farshchian, Sophie Flohil, Maria Gaiser, Robert Gruber, Sebastian Haferkamp, Christoph Hammers, David Hill, Sadaf Kasraie, Johannes Kern, Beda Mühleisen, Eva Muraurer, Marjon Pasmooij, Marta Polak, Mathieu Rodero, Julien Seneschal, Ellen van den Bogaard, Verena Wally, Ning Xu
Mentors:
Salvador Aznar-Benitah, Leena Bruckner-Tuderman, Michel Gilliet, Eugene Healy, Alain Hovnanian, Veli-Matti Kahari, Mauro Picardo, Nicholas Reynolds, Martin Roecken, Maarten Vermeer
The Future Leaders Academy 2013 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Celgene, Pfizer and Roche
25-27 October 2012, in Barcelona, Spain
Mentees:
Mohammad Alimohammadi, Sara Brown, Patrick Brunner, Anissa Chikh, Heleen de Koning, Piotr Dziunycz, Mario Fabri, Vincent Flacher, Lukas Flatz, Emmanuella Guenova, Juan Guinea, Jessica Hassel, Wolfram Hoetzenecker, Jochen Hoffmann, Dimitra Kiritsi, Christian Möbs, Emõke Racz, Yuval Ramot, Christopher Schuster, Tanya Shaw, Georg Stary, Thomas Volz
Mentors:
Martine Bagot, Jonathan Barker, Tilo Biedermann, Alexander Enk, Lars French, Irene Leigh, Carien Niessen, Carlo Pincelli, Annamari Ranki, Matthias Schmuth, Thomas Schwarz
The Future Leaders Academy 2012 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Abbott and Celgene
Psoriasis and beyond
10-12 November 2011, in Cascais, Portugal
Mentees:
Elisabetta Botti, Jean-David Bouaziz, Kilian Eyerich, Tobias Goerge, Eva Hadaschik, John Ingram, Joey Lai-Cheong, Anke Lonsdorf, Sonja Molin, Nikoletta Nagy, Alexander Navarini, Andrew Pink, Neil Rajan, Eniko Sonkoly, Daniel Torocsik, Sinia Vergou, Marlies Wakkee, Florian Woelbing, Amir Yazdi, Christina Zielinski
Mentors:
Antonio Constanzo, Alexander Enk, Andrew Finlay, Giampiero Girolomoni, John McGrath, Chris Griffiths, Frank Nestle, Vincent Piguet, Michael Schön, Georg Stingl
The Future Leaders Academy 2011 is kindly supported through an educational grant by Abbott