Katherine Edyvane Scholarship in Humanitarian Surgery
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Applications for the 2025-26 Katherine Edyvane Scholarship will open mid-2025. Stay tuned for updates on this page.
The scholarship is offered annually and may cover training/course fees for a short course (up to 8 weeks), reasonable travel accommodation expenses related to the training activity, visa application fees, and living allowances whilst in training.
The Katherine Edyvane Scholarship in Humanitarian Surgery was established through a bequest to the Foundation for Surgery from the family of Dr Katherine Edyvane FRACS, following her passing from breast cancer in 2015.
Dr Edyvane was always committed to public health and international medical outreach. In 2005, after gaining her Fellowship from RACS, she volunteered as Team Leader in the Earthquake Disaster Response in Pakistan, where she delivered surgical care in tents in the freezing Kashmiri winter. She then moved to Timor Leste as a RACS Surgeon at the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares in 2006. In Dili, Dr Edyvane closely mentored some of the country’s first surgical trainees (many of whom are now Consultants). Amidst her decade-long surgical work and training, she devoted herself warmly and generously to improving health resources for the local community.
Dr Edyvane was also a foundation member of Specialists Without Borders, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to taking medical education into developing countries, and volunteered on surgical training missions to Rwanda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.
In 2015, Dr Edyvane was presented with the prestigious RACS International Medal for her outstanding contribution to international surgery and surgical education in Timor-Leste, Pakistan, and Africa.
Application criteria
The Katherine Edyvane Scholarship in Humanitarian Surgery is open to qualified surgeons, medical specialists and doctors in specialist training who are working in a public/government institution as their primary appointment. Those working in private practice as their primary appointment are not eligible.
Applicant must be a citizen of and permanently residing in Timor-Leste or a targeted developing country in the Asia Pacific region. Preference will be given to eligible applicants from Timor-Leste.
Eligible countries are: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and the Pacific Island countries including Cook Islands, Federal States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu
Application information
Applications must:
- be working in a public/government institution as their primary appointment;
- be accompanied by a letter of nomination from a health professional participating in the RACS Global Health Program or a RACS Fellow, and a letter of support from the applicant’s superior;
- be supported by the identified host supervisor and host institution, if applicable; and
- be authored by the applicant and submitted directly to RACS via the online platform.
Contact
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
250-290 Spring Street
East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia
Email: [email protected]