Dr Zoe Saynor is an Associate Professor in Clinical Exercise Physiology at the University of Southampton (UK) and a registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist. A former international rugby union athlete, her research explores the relationship between health, physical activity, and exercise across diverse populations and the lifespan. She focuses on person-centred strategies to assess and support long-term physical and mental well-being, integrating these into clinical and performance settings to promote safe and effective physical activity for all. She holds a BSc in Sports Science, an MSc in Exercise Rehabilitation (Bangor University), and a PhD in Paediatric Clinical Exercise Physiology (University of Exeter). Before joining Southampton, she led the Physical Activity, Health, and Rehabilitation research group at the University of Portsmouth (2014–2024). Dr Saynor’s research examines the role of exercise testing, training, and nutrition in preventing and treating chronic diseases, as well as enhancing long-term athlete health, particularly in female athletes. She has worked with individuals across the lifespan, including those with cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, asthma, COPD, diabetes, kidney disease, arthritis, joint hypermobility, cancer, Raynaud’s, inflammatory bowel disease, and long-COVID. Passionate about athlete welfare, she chairs the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) Women’s Welfare Advisory Board and advises on national and international policies. She is also dedicated to translating exercise science into real-world practice, ensuring evidence-based approaches benefit both clinical populations and elite athletes. An active member of the ECSS community, Dr Saynor served as an Associate Editor (Sport and Exercise Medicine and Health) for four years before being appointed Deputy Editor-in-Chief in February 2025.

Prof Anni Vanhatalo is a Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Exeter (UK). Her scientific expertise focusses on therapeutic and ergogenic applications of dietary nitrate, host-microbiome interactions that underpin human health and performance, and understanding limitations to exercise tolerance, particularly relating to skeletal muscle bioenergetics and oxygen delivery. Her dietary nitrate work explores how microbiome-diet-host interactions may influence cardiovascular and cognitive health, and her applied physiology research covers a range of topics from prediction of exercise performance to pacing strategies, ergogenic aids and training interventions. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and her h-index is 62. Prof Vanhatalo is a Fellow of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine. She served as a Reviewing Editor for the European Journal of Sports Science for 10 years prior to commencing the role of the Editor-in-Chief in January 2022. She has also served as an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Applied Physiology, the Physiological Reports and the Sport and Exercise Sciences Reviews.

Dr Daniel Boullosa is a "Ramón y Cajal" researcher at the Faculty of Sports Science and Physical Activity at the University of León in Spain (2022-). He also holds honorary positions at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) and James Cook University (Australia). He began his academic career in Brazil in 2011, after obtaining his PhD in 2009 (University of A Coruña, Spain). Prior to this, he spent a decade working in different areas of physical education and as a strength and conditioning specialist with diverse populations. His research focuses mainly on sport and exercise physiology with athletes and clinical populations, with some activity in sport and exercise psychology. He is also scientific advisor to the High Performance Centre of León (Spanish Higher Sports Council) and associate editor of the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance and the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Associated with the European College of Sport Science since 2007 and Fellow of the ECSS since 2025, he is also Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

At every ECSS congress, ECSS and its official publishing partner, Wiley, offer travel grants of €600 each for up to five ECSS Young Investigators Award (YIA) candidates. During the online abstract submission process, applicants for the ECSS YIA have the opportunity to opt in for the ECSS YIA travel grant. The applicant must fulfil the following requirements:

• The applicant is not a former ECSS YIA travel grant winner.
• The applicant has successfully submitted an abstract for an ECSS YIA presentation at the Annual Congress (Notification of acceptance on 2 April 2024) and ticked ‘Yes - I wish to apply for the ECSS YIA travel grant’ during abstract submission.
• The applicant uploaded a proof of a university affiliation that appears on the DAC List of ODA Recipients in the ECSS account.
• The applicant uploaded a proof of current residence in a country that appears on the DAC List of ODA Recipients in the ECSS account.
• The applicant paid the full registration fee before receiving the ECSS YIA travel grant money.

Following a review of all ECSS YIA applications by the ECSS Scientific Board and ECSS Scientific Committee, ECSS YIA travel grants are then selected according to the results of the ECSS YIA’s abstract selection process and offered to candidates.

For more information on the ECSS YIA travel grant for ECSS Glasgow 2024, click here.