INTERNATIONAL AWARDS AND SCIENTIFIC RECOGNITION
Major impacts on the reputation of research being conducted in Montréal and Québec

On November 28th, the Palais des congrès de Montréal, the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) and Chief Scientist Rémi Quirion convened almost 50 researchers, heads of research centres, university faculty representatives and members of the Ambassadors Club to the forum on International awards: A boost for scientific recognition. This second edition of the forum focused on the different ways researchers can promote their work within the scientific community, most notably via scientific awards and organizing major scientific conventions.

Both awards and conventions can play a role in recognizing and promoting researchers. "Attracting and holding large-scale international conventions makes it possible to generate significant intellectual benefits, while shining the spotlight on science and the scientific luminaries associated with the events. Montréal hosts more international conventions that any other city in the Americas, and the Palais is proud to actively participate in the process of putting together bids in order to help scientists looking to welcome their peers to Montréal, and the Palais," stated Raymond Larivée, President and CEO of the Palais des congrès de Montréal, a Québec government corporation.

Nevertheless, according to Rémi Quirion, "the Québec scientific community is not on the radar in terms of scientific awards. This despite the fact we have excellent researchers in leading-edge fields like genetics, aging, economics and artificial intelligence. We should not shy away from nominating our people, we need to learn to put ourselves out there so we can enhance our international reputation even more. This forum provided the scientific community with an opportunity to concert its efforts so that our next actions can elevate our researchers to the highest pinnacles of their fields."

The forum was also when the first recipients of the Palais des congrès de Montréal Ambassadors Club - Fonds de recherche du Québec grants were unveiled, recognizing the work of researchers invested in organizing international scientific conventions. The grants were awarded to:

• Gaétan Laroche and Diego Mantovani of Université Laval, in collaboration with Sophie Lerouge of École de technologie supérieure - 10th World Biomaterials Congress
  Grant presented by the Fonds de recherche - Nature et technologies
• Jean-Marie Dufour of McGill University - 11th World Congress of the Econometric Society
  Grant presented by the Fonds de recherche - Société et culture
• Pierre Talbot of INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier -Congress of the International Union of Microbiological Societies
  Grant presented by the Fonds de recherche - Santé