Research & Grants

IARS is dedicated to encouraging, stimulating, and funding ongoing anesthesia-related research projects that will enhance and advance the specialty. A trusted resource for state-of-the-art research data, IARS supports basic research and all areas of clinical research, including perioperative medicine, critical care, and pain management.

 

“The IARS is willing to take a bet on new studies and important questions that larger funding agencies, like the NIH, are very unlikely to bet on.”

— Past award recipient

Current Grants

Research is key for the anesthesiology specialty to successfully master the challenges of the future. IARS is looking to the future with its Grants Program, supporting research and scientific advancement of the anesthesiology specialty. To date, the IARS has funded more than 200 projects, contributing more than $14 million to the anesthesia community.

Kosaka Best Abstracts Award

The Kosaka Best Abstract Awards are awarded to the top scoring abstracts submitted to the IARS Annual Meeting in three categories: Clinical Research, Basic Science, or Scholars. Three top finalists are selected in each category and each present their abstract again during the Kosaka Best Abstract Session at the IARS meeting. The abstract finalists receive a $50 prize and one winner from each category receives $500. Discover more about the award recipients.

The Kosaka Best Abstract Awards are supported by the Japan Society for Clinical Anesthesia (JSCA) and the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). The founder of the JSCA, Dr. Futami Kosaka, started a cooperative relationship with IARS in 1990 and developed the foundation for this exciting opportunity.

SmartTots

The IARS sponsors the SmartTots initiative, working with multiple stakeholders, to address the scientific and clinical gaps regarding the safe use of anesthetics and sedatives in children. Research funded through SmartTots investigates multiple aspects of existing anesthetics and their administration, including dosage and exposure.

Anesthesia Research Council

Anesthesia Research Council’s (ARC) mission is to advance scientific discovery and health care policy through the development and dissemination of research in anesthesiology, perioperative, and pain medicine with the goal to become the go-to resource for state-of-the-art review, synthesis, and future recommendations in anesthesiology, perioperative medicine, critical care, and pain medicine research.

ARC currently is a 3-year program, supported by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), Foundation for Anesthesia and Education Research (FAER) and IARS and overseen by a Steering Committee. The Steering Committee, chaired by Max Kelz, MD, PhD, is responsible for choosing the annual study focus and generating a series of concrete questions to be addressed, resulting in a final work product. The Committee also identifies and recruits a diverse working group of 5–6 people responsible for generating the final outcome.

ORCID iDs at IARS

Attach your identity to your research and get the proper recognition for your work. IARS encourages all researchers to use an ORCID iD when submitting awards and grant applications. An ORCID identifier (ORCID iD) is a unique, personal, persistent identifier for researchers that distinguishes you from every other researcher and enables you to link your publications to your unique record, ensuring your work is recognized.

Previous Grants

The IARS established its Grants Program in 1983 to further the scientific advancement of the anesthesiology specialty. 

“Looking back, the award was instrumental in a very crucial part in my career. The transition from fellow to faculty is such an important few years (often times unrecognized!) that ultimately shapes the path, and subsequently, the bulk of one’s future career. With the award, I was able to have dedicated research time and pursue a Masters in Clinical Investigation to obtain additional skills in clinical design, biostatistics, and biomedical informatics.”

– 2016 IARS Mentored Research Award Recipient Eric Vu, MD

“The IARS Mentored Research Award (IMRA) was the only grant I was eligible to apply for as a postdoctoral fellow, and I am grateful for its existence. Such a grant has enormous impact on early-career researchers, and undeniably raises their chances for success. Thank you to the IARS for this incredible support for a young researcher such as myself! I will be forever grateful that the IARS could support my research.”

– 2021 IARS Mentored Research Award Recipient Catherine Duclos, PhD

“[With the IMRA], we’ve been able to really untangle how some of this pathway feeds into a nociceptive behavior or pain response. But we ended up with a really important and big question in front of us which is now trying to understand why there’s a sex difference, and how it is or where it is that males and females diverge. So that’s the work we are on the cusp of a publication with.”

– 2019 IARS Mentored Research Award Recipient Benjamin Steinberg, MD, PhD, FRCPC