'Engaging with my national RMD organisation – how it enriched and changed the quality of my life.'

The 2024 Edgar Stene Prize essay competition is now open. 

The EULAR Edgar Stene Prize essay competition is an international writing competition with the aim to increase awareness of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.

The prize is awarded every year to the best essay contribution submitted by a person with arthritis or other rheumatic or musculoskeletal disorder (RMD) describing their individual experience of living with an RMD. You are invited to consider the following questions and issues in your essay:

• How did you learn about your national RMD organisation?
• When and why did you become a member?
• How does membership look like in your organisation?
• Please describe how you benefit from your membership and how your life was impacted by it.
• Why would you recommend to other people with RMDs to join their national RMD organisation?
• Use this opportunity to share your experiences, hopes and even visions as to what role patient organisations should play in the future.

Participants are requested to submit their entries to Arthritis Ireland by 30 November 2023 (further details are below). The Irish winner will be announced on 15 December and that entry proceeds to the European competition. The overall winners will be selected by the 2024 Edgar Stene Prize Jury, to be announced by 22 March 2024, then awarded at the Opening Plenary session taking place at the EULAR European Congress of Rheumatology EULAR 2024, on 12th June.

The competition has a first prize money of EUR 1,000, including an accommodation and travel bursary and registration to the EULAR Congress 2024 (to attend the Opening Plenary session) and an invitation to the EULAR Family and Congress dinners*. Second and third prizes are awarded with prize money of EUR 700 and EUR 300 respectively.

Read the 2022 winning entry by Nora Sofia Dubilier

Read the 2023 winning entry by Shauna O'Connor

Submission guidelines

1. Essays may be submitted by any person living with a rheumatic disease (minimum age of 18 years). Entries are to be submitted to Arthritis Ireland by email to [email protected] on or before 30th November 2023.
2. Essays should not exceed 2 pages (typewritten, Arial 12-point, single line space, adequate frames). All entries must be submitted in MS Word (DOC/DOCX format). PDF files will not be accepted.
3. Essays must be:
• original and unpublished. Plagiarised entries will be rejected.
• written by one person. Co-authored essays are not accepted.
4. Copyright of the essays entered will be assigned to the organiser.

Please include the following with your submission: 

• Email address and contact number 
• Portrait picture in high resolution 
• 2-3 short paragraphs about yourself including age, profession, family, hometown, hobbies, how you learned about the Edgar Stene Prize, why you chose to enter the competition
• Signed copy of EULAR's official publication consent form

Value and awarding of the prizes

• 1st Prize: The competition has a first prize money of EUR 1,000, including a travel and accommodation bursary (4 nights), registration to the EULAR Congress (to attend the Opening Plenary session) and an invitation to the EULAR Family and EULAR Congress dinners*.
• 2nd and 3rd Prizes: Second and third prizes are awarded with prize money of EUR 700 and EUR 300 respectively.

*Should the EULAR Congress 2024 be held as a virtual event for any reason, all Congress destination related activities to come with the Stene Prize (travel to the EULAR Congress 2024, accommodation, participation in the on-site Congress and the Opening Plenary Session, EULAR Congress related Dinners) will be cancelled. There is no right to receive any of these related activities as monetary refund nor will they be moved to a later point in time.

Please note: the Stene Prize money will still be awarded and not be impacted.

Composition of the EULAR jury

The Jury shall comprise five voting members, of whom not more than two shall be doctors, appointed by the EULAR PARE Committee. The EULAR Vice-President PARE and the Chair of the PARE Committee shall be ex-officio members of the Jury. The ex-officio members have no voting rights. A Jury shall be appointed for each prize and no member may sit more than twice in succession.

The Stene Prize shall be awarded by an absolute majority decision. If no entry is judged worthy of the prize then it shall not be awarded. The winning contribution and the other entries may be published after the presentation of the prize in whatever form the author, the national organisation or EULAR may decide.

No legal or other objection to the majority decision of the Jury is possible. Any discussions or correspondence concerning the decision are excluded.