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The 15th annual CARNet meeting was held in Liverpool, UK, between the 16th-18th September 2026. It was our largest meeting to date!
This year's conference in numbers:
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119 registered attendees
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18 countries represented (UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Lithuania, and Uruguay)
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A record-breaking 95 abstract presentations (27 oral, 68 posters)
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1 keynote speaker (Peter Smielewski, University of Cambridge)
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6 invited speakers
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2 rising stars
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6 trainee awards
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5 travel awardees
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1 welcome social
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1 conference dinner
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and countless new friendships and collaborative opportunities!
Congratulations to all winners of the CARNet 2026 trainee presentation competition!
The overall winner (highest scoring trainee across both presentation types) was awarded to Fábio Gonçalves!
From left to right: Ryan Hoiland (ordinary member), Jacob Matney, Vanessa Mann, Spencer Skaper. Farah Kamar, Olivia Phillips, Sarah Matuja, and Elle Scheijen (standing on behalf of Fábio Gonçalves for the photo), Caroline Rickards (chair)
Oral presentation winners:
1st place: Spencer Skaper, University of British Columbia
2nd place: Farah Kamar, Western University
3rd place: Jacob Matney, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Poster presentation winners:
1st place: Fábio Gonçalves, KU Leuven
2nd place: Sarah Matuja, University of Leicester
3rd place: Olivia Phillips, Manchester Metropolitan University*
3rd place: Vanessa Mann, University of Rostock*
*joint winners
We would also like to congratulate our 5 travel awardees! This was the first year we had travel award opportunities, so it was fantastic to see trainees from all over the world come to Liverpool to present their incredible research.
Travel awardees:
Farah Kamar, Western University
Jacob Matney, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Nele Demeersseman, KU Leuven
Enrico Vescovi Salles, Federal Fluminense University
Spencer Skaper, University of British Columbia
One awardee, Nele, highlighted that this award provided her with "the opportunity to present [her] research and exchange ideas with researchers from different backgrounds, all sharing an interest in understanding cerebrovascular function. Learning from their different perspectives broadened [her] understanding of the field and helped [her] see [her] own research in a wider context."
