Submission is open for the David Marsden Award 2026, with a €10,000 prize on offer and the chance to present in the Basal Ganglia Club Session at the EAN Congress 2026.
(Charles) David Marsden (1938–1998), was a British neurologist who made a significant contribution to the field of movement disorders. He was described as ‘arguably the leading academic neurologist and neuroscientist of his generation in the UK’.
Dystonia Europe established the David Marsden Award in 2003, to acknowledge Marsden’s work on the dystonias, and to honour the immense part he played in improving the lives of so many people who live with the condition. The aim of this award is to stimulate developing knowledge of and interest in dystonia through publications of aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis in dystonia or on the psycho social effects.
€10,000 to stimulate research on dystonia!
General Information:
- The David Marsden Award is presented every year
- The Award sum is € 10,000 for papers (i.e. manuscripts for original publication – no abstracts) on aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis or therapies in dystonia or on the psycho-‐social effects
- Applicants should be under 45 years of age
- Submitted papers may have been published within the last two years
- Unsuccessful applicants may re-present their papers in the following year, if fundamental new scientific findings are involved
- The applicant should be the first author
- The research must have taken place within Geographical Europe
Procedure:
- Papers should be submitted by email to the DE Secretariat with a short Curriculum Vitae and a declaration that the paper has not been submitted for any other scientific awards
- The deadline for submissions is 1 March 2026
- The evaluation of papers will be carried out by the Dystonia Europe Medical and Scientific Advisory Board and a recommendation made to the DE Managing Board
- The winner will be invited to make a presentation at the Basal Ganglia Club Session at the EAN Congress 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland
Applications for the David Marsden Award should be made through the David Marsden Award website.
David Marsden Award 2025
The David Marsden Award 2025 was awarded to Ahmet Kaymak for the paper: “Spiking Patterns in the Globus Pallidus Highlight Convergent Neural Dynamics across Diverse Genetic Dystonia Syndromes”. The research was performed at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Institute of BioRobotics.
