ENETS Grants and Awards Winners

At ENETS, we are proud to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of researchers who are advancing the understanding and treatment of neuroendocrine tumours (NETs). The winners of the ENETS grants and awards represent the very best in both basic and clinical science, and their innovative work is paving the way for significant progress in the field. These awards honour groundbreaking research, dedication, and a shared commitment to improving patient outcomes. Explore the list of winners and learn more about their exceptional contributions to the future of NET research.

Grant & Award Recipients 2025

22nd Annual Conference 2025

Best oral abstract presentations


Basic science

We are pleased to announce the following presenters have been awarded the Best Oral and Mini Oral presentations at the 22nd Annual ENETS Conference. These awards are supported by ENETS and the NET Research Foundation.

  • First Place (Tie):
    • Laura MARIËN (Belgium) – “NET-IMPRESS: A novel methylation-based assay to diagnose and monitor NET patients using liquid biopsies”
    • Iacovos MICHAEL (Canada) – “BH3-mimetic drugs elicit cell death of neuroendocrine tumours in preclinical models – An emerging therapeutic strategy for NETs”
  • Second Place: James YAO (USA) – “Developing innovative, genetically modified, proliferation-regulated patient-derived models representing human well-differentiated GEP-NETs for drug screening”
  • Third Place: Anna BATTISTELLA (Italy) – “Development of new 3D in vitro models for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PanNETs)”

Clinical science

  • First Place: Jaume CAPDEVILA (Spain) – “Efficacy and safety of [177Lu]Lu-edotreotide vs. everolimus in patients with grade 1 or grade 2 gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours: COMPETE phase 3 trial”
  • Second Place: Eric BAUDIN (France) – “Secondary endpoint results of the first multicentric randomised phase II trial investigating the antitumour efficacy of 177Lutetium-DOTA-Octreotate (OCLU) in advanced progressive neuroendocrine pancreatic tumour: The OCLURANDOM trial”
  • Third Place: Julien HADOUX (France) – “Emergence of DNA damage repair clonal haematopoiesis after peptide receptor radionuclide therapy for neuroendocrine tumours”

Best Mini Oral Presentations

Basic Science:

Jelka KUIPER (The Netherlands) – “Familial inactivating glucagon receptor mutation resulting in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours with metastatic potential, somatic MEN1 mutations, and a heterozygous phenotype”

Clinical Science:

Halfdan SORBYE (Norway) – “Multivariate survival analyses of 544 advanced high-grade digestive neuroendocrine neoplasms (NET G3 and NEC) given first-line chemotherapy (NORDIC NEC 2)”

Winners of the Håkan Ahlman Award 2025

We are proud to announce the winners of this year's ENETS Håkan Ahlman Award, recognising outstanding researchers in neuroendocrine neoplasms. This prestigious award honours the legacy of Håkan Ahlman, a founding member of ENETS and an inspiring researcher.

The recipients of the ENETS Håkan Ahlman Award 2025 are:

In Chan's absence, Thorvardur Halfdanarson accepted the certificate on her behalf.

Jennifer CHAN (USA)

for her outstanding abstract entitled “Phase 3 Trial of Cabozantinib to Treat Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors”. (In her absence, Thorvardur Halfdanarson accepted the certificate on her behalf.)

 

2025 awardee Shani AVNIEL-POLAK receives the certificate from ENETS Chair Rocio GARCIA-CARBONERO.

Shani AVNIEL-POLAK (ISR)

for her pioneering research article entitled “Enhancer landscape of lung neuroendocrine tumors reveals regulatory and developmental signatures with potential theranostic implications”.

Travel Grant Winners 2025

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Travel Grants for the 22nd Annual ENETS Conference. These grants support outstanding individuals in attending the conference, fostering global collaboration and knowledge exchange within the neuroendocrine tumour (NET) community.

Congratulations to the following winners:

  • Beatriz Anton Pascual (ESP)
  • Simona Avanthay (SUI)
  • Zaima Afzal Awan (FRA)
  • Anna Battistella (ITA)
  • Felix Bolduan (GER)
  • Tanvi Brar (USA)
  • Olivia Debnath (USA)
  • Elisabetta Dell'Unto (ITA)
  • Arooj Fatima (PAK)
  • Sofia Maria Lider (ROM)
  • Laura Mariën (BEL)
  • Mohamed Mortagy (GBR)
  • Daniel Ruiz Palacios (ESP)
  • Elena Trevisani (ITA)
  • Anna Vera Verschuur (NED)

Previous ENETS Grant & Award Winners

Explore the exceptional contributions of past awardees who have advanced NET research and innovation.

Grant and Award Recipients in 2024

21st Annual ENETS Conference 2024

At the 21st Annual ENETS Conference 2024, the following grants and awards were awarded:

Best oral abstract presentation in the category basic science

  • First place: Iacovos MICHAEL (CAN)
  • Second place: Michele SIMBOLO (ITA)
  • Third place: Netta MÄKINEN (USA)

Best oral abstract presentation in the category clinical science

  • First place: Louis DE MESTIER (FRA)
  • Second place: Halfdan SORBYE (NOR)
  • Third place: Hussein ALMEAMAR (IRL)

Best oral poster presentation in basic science

  • Yotam DRIER (ISR)

Best oral poster presentation in clinical science

  • Louis DE MESTIER (FRA)

Winners of the Håkan Ahlman Award 2024

2024 award winner Talya Dayton

Talya DAYTON (ESP)

For her outstanding article entitled
“Druggable growth dependencies and tumor evolution analysis in patient-derived organoids of neuroendocrine neoplasms from multiple body sites”.

 

2024 award winner Cédric Nesti

Cédric NESTI (SUI)

For his outstanding article entitled
"Hemicolectomy versus appendectomy for patients with appendiceal neuroendocrine tumours 1-2 cm in size: a retrospective, Europe-wide, pooled cohort study".

Travel Grant Winners

Travel grants to the 21st Annual ENETS Conference have been awarded to:

  • Anna Battistella (ITA)
  • Elio Benevento (ITA)
  • Felix Johannes Bolduan (GER)
  • Maria Danieli (ITA)
  • Marie Line El Asmar (GBR)
  • Frederik Erdmann (NED)
  • Daphne Leunissen (NED)
  • Hannes Leupe (BEL)
  • Jerena Manoharan (GER)
  • Laura Mariën (BEL)
  • María Trinidad Moreno Montilla (ESP)
  • Mohamed Mortagy (GBR)
  • Sergio Pedraza-Arévalo (ESP)
  • Huijing Tan (CHN)
  • Elena Trevisani (ITA)

Grant and Award Recipients in 2023

NextGEN ENETS

The second NextGEN ENETS Scientific workshop took place on 28 – 30 September 2023 in Knivsta, Sweden. ENETS awarded 13 young NET researchers the chance to attend this workshop:

  • Ioanna ANGELIOUDAKIi, Greece
  • Maria Francesca BIRTOLO, France
  • Carlos CARRETERO, Spain
  • Chiara Alessandra CELLA, Italy
  • Laura GERARD, France
  • Enes KACMAZ, The Netherlands
  • Ieva LASE, Sweden
  • Hannes LEUPE, Belgium
  • Maria Grazia MARATTA, Italy
  • Magdalena MILEVA, Belgium
  • Sergio PEDRAZA-ARÈVALO, Spain
  • Eleonora PELLE, United States
  • Franz SESTI, Italy

20th Annual ENETS Conference 2023

The following grants and awards have been awarded within the framework of the 20th Annual ENETS Conference 2023:

 

Best oral abstracts in the category for basic science:

  • First place: Alberto LENS (ESP)
  • Second place: Ilaria MARINONI (SUI)
  • Second place: María TRINIDAD MORENO (ESP)

 

Best oral abstracts in the category for clinical science:

  • First place: Jules DERKS (NED)
  • Second place: Stefano CRINÒ (ITA)
  • Third place: Cédric NESTI (SUI)
  • Third place: Markus PUHLMANN (USA)

 

ENETS Synergy Grant winner:

  • Halfdan SORBYE (NOR)

Winner of the Håkan Ahlman Award 2023:

Wenzel Hackeng received the award 2023 in Vienna.

Wenzel HACKENG (NED)

For his outstanding article entitled
“Non-functional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours: ATRX/DAXX and alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) are prognostically independent from ARX/PDX1 expression and tumour size.”

Read the award-winning article

Other educational and scientific awards bestowed in 2023


ENETS CoE Preceptorship winners:

  • Niloefar Ahmadi Bidakhvidi (BEL)
  • Oana Ciobanu (ROU)
  • Maribel del Olmo Garcia (ESP)
  • Odeta Islam (BEL)