November and December 2016

The 9^th RQR Symposium was held on November 8 and 9, 2016 at the Espaces Dalhousie in Vieux-Québec. It was preceded by a pre-Symposium workshop on gene editing. All participants concurred both events were a great success! Since gene editing is a subject that raises both technical and ethical questions, several interesting points were generated follows extensive discussion during the workshop. More than 80 people attended. All the speakers kindly agreed that their presentation be made available on the secured section of the RQR website.

During this Symposium, the RQR thanked Dr. Bruce Murphy for his creation of    the network and for these nine years at the head of the RQR. With your collaboration, a special tribute was given to him in the form of a video accompanied by a memory book of the video. You can see the book that was given to him to celebrate the occasion.

In addition to presentations by our three guest speakers, participants attended 17 platform presentations and 58 posters. The students who particularly distinguished themselves are:

Winners, best platform presentations:

1. Océane Albert, McGill University (1^st position – 300 $)

2. Lisa-Marie Legault, Université de Montréal (2^nd position – 200 $)

3. Luisina Ongaro, McGill University (3^rd position – 100 $)

Winners, best poster presentations:

1.  Jenna Haverfield, Université de Montréal (1^st position – 300 $)

2.  Luke Currin, McGill University (2^nd position – 200 $)

3.  Shiva Shafiei, McGill University (3^rd position – 100 $)

Again this year, the RQR highlighted the knowledge transfer efforts of two RQR members for their valuable interactions with end users of research in reproduction. The recipients of the 2016 RQR KT Awards are:

• Researcher Award: Dr. Géraldine Delbès from INRS

• Trainee Award: Phanie L. Charest, MSc student from the Université Laval (laboratory of Dr.Janice L. Bailey)

The FRQNT has opened two 2016-2017 competitions to allow us to expand our network internationally: the International Internship program (reserved for MSc and PhD students of the network) and the programme d’échanges hors Québec de professeurs (for researchers of the network).

Haste is necessary as for both competitions the stay must begin before March 31, 2017 and deadline to submit an application to the RQR is February 1^st, 2017!

For more details:

• International Internship program: please visit the RQR website, section International Internships, under the « Students » tab.
• Programme d’échanges hors Québec de professeurs: please visit the FRQNT website for details (in French only) and complete the form to register.

For any question regarding these two competitions, do not hesitate to contact Julie Blouin, RQR network manager, by email at j.blouin@umontreal.ca.