Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award
The Fons Sips Award was created in order to ensure that the heritage and history of the movement was not forgotten and in order to recognise great work and contribution of its members. The winner of the biannual Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award becomes EYFDM’s nominee for the WONCA World Rising Star Award. It is our privilege and honour to present one of the EYFDM members side by side with other YDM’s candidates to the world audience of family physicians.
The Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award remains first and foremost the chance for EYFDM members to appreciate their colleagues’ achievements and passion for Family Medicine, as well as their commitment to EYFDM community. It continues to be an award “by the members, for the members”.
See the previous call: Fons Sips Award call 2025
History
In 2016, the Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award was created in honour of the contributions of one of EYFDM’s (at that time VdGM) founding fathers, Alphons Jacobus Ignatius. It was created in order to insure that the heritage and history of the movement was not forgotten and in order to recognise great work and contribution of its members. The celebratory action was tinged with profound sadness as Fons Sips passed away shortly after its creation. The inaugural award was awarded to Fons Sips in memoriam and we were joined by his family in honouring him at the WONCA Europe Conference in Prague 2017.
In 2021 WONCA World created the Rising Star Award which aims to recognize a young doctor who has demonstrated a drive for excellence in Health Care. Each of the seven Young Doctors Movements designates its candidate for the WONCA World Rising Star Award, the winner is announced at the WONCA World Conference. The winner of the biannual Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award becomes EYFDM’s nominee for the WONCA World Rising Star Award.
Former Winners
2025 Fons Sips Award: Raisa Álvarez Paniagua
“Through her unwavering dedication, Raisa Álvarez Paniagua has left an impact on the EYFDM community and beyond. Her visionary approach, coupled with her enormous workload capacity and support of fellow young doctors, embodies the spirit of EYFDM. Her contributions have allowed many colleagues to participate in international exchanges, facilitating their professional development in their early careers, and sharing the EYFDM spirit. […] Raisa Álvarez Paniagua exemplifies the values and principles that EYFDM stands for, along with her commitment to the group.”
“Her dedication and commitment to the development of young family doctors across Europe make her a truly deserving candidate for this honor. Raisa Álvarez Paniagua has been a key figure in EYFDM, actively engaging in initiatives that empower young family doctors and strengthen primary care education across Europe. As National Exchange Coordinator of Spain since 2020, she continues to work tirelessly to promote knowledge-sharing and new exchange opportunities to our colleagues.
From her role as NEC, she facilitated the revision of the guidelines for exchanges to level them to the European rules. She has worked on many occasions with the Spanish national family doctor association SEMFyC (Sociedad Española de Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria) to raise awareness of the EYFDM within Spanish young family doctors, and for other young doctors to enjoy exchanges in Spain. She contributed to organise two conference exchanges in Spain in 2021, which were significantly successful despite the travelling difficulties that the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown rules caused.
Since 2023, Raisa has served as the European Regional Coordinator for FM360 exchanges, facilitating overseas opportunities from a wider perspective. Her role has included a renovation of the online platform to enhance promotion and streamline in the application process. She has participated in two editions of the Bridge Project (2021-2022 and 2022-2023), and has continued her involvement since last year, contributing to its expansion beyond European borders. Further demonstrating her exceptional work, Raisa has actively participated in numerous activities related with EYFDM in recent years” including: SIG Women’s Health, WONCA SIG Emergency Medicine, NMOs Policy review, EURIPA, European WWPWFM (Wonca Working Party on Women and Family Medicine), elaboration of Forum bid for the 10th edition, proxy for Spain ND on EYFDM Council, finalist in Junior Doctors’ Research Awards in 2023 (Influence of Diet and Physical Activity in Pregnant Women in Rural Areas and Its Correlation with the Birth Weight of Their Children part of her PhD thesis), current participant in the WONCA Research Mentor programme, active participant in multiple events including exchange in Edirne, Türkiya in February 2020, EURIPA Forum 2022, WONCA Europe Conference 2022, WONCA Europe Preconference and Conference 2023 Brussels, WONCA World Conference 2023 Sydney, EYFDM Forum 2024 Vienna, AfriWon Conference 2024 Kenya, WONCA Europe Preconference and Conference 2024 Dublin, Iberoamerican Conference of Family Medicine 2024 Panama, reviewer of abstracts submissions for WONCA events.
2023 Fons Sips Award: Marta Ruivo
Marta Ruivo (Portugal) received our biennial Fons Sips award in Brussels and was put forward as our candidate for WONCA World’s ‘rising star’ award.
2021 Fons Sips Award: Marina Jotić Ivanović
“She is very knowledgeable, talented and she is always open to share her knowledge with others. She is open to discussion and open-minded when she receives new information. She has the skills to manage a group and organize things. She is active both at local, national, European, and also global levels. She is able to transfer her skills to her colleagues around the world in different projects. Hence, she is very good at empowering.”
“Marina is a very engaged family doctor, and focuses on the community she serves, whether in Doboj or in VdGM. She empowers those around her, and lifts up the voices of her colleagues.”
Marina Jotić Ivanović is a 35 year-old family specialist who has been awarded the Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award in 2021. The Vasco da Gama Movement is honoured to present Marina as our WONCA World Rising Star Award nominee. Involvement in activities that are linked to primary care on the local ground: Strengthening local services- lobbying for a mobile mammography service.
Coordinating work during the pandemic- she was appointed as the Coordinator of COVD-19 activities in her health care centre which brought great responsibility of organising work of the health system in the wake of a sudden health care crisis.
She was a technical secretary and a member of the scientific board at the Symposium for medical doctors with international participation named “Future of Family Medicine” organized by the Primary Health Care Center in Doboj.
She is an active EYFDM council member who is engaged in ongoing activities, suggests new actions and voices opinions during debates. She’s also part of the Lifestyle and family violence SIGs. Besides her achievements, Marina is known for her openness and kind nature.
2019 Laureate of the Fons Sips Award: Elena Klusova
“Elena is this kind of person who gives everything without asking anything in return. That year after year, and generation after generation, teaches the new arrivals, cares that everyone is well, motivates us with experiences, exchanges, conferences, workshops and thousands of activities with the sole purpose of being a united team and that we can grow and learn together. For Elena everything is WE instead of ME.”
Elena Klusova was announced as the winner of the 2nd edition of the Fons Sips Award during the closing ceremony of the WONCA Europe Conference 2019 in Bratislava. Born in Moscow, she ended up settling in Spain where her life first became entangled with VdGM as a host for a conference exchange in Madrid in 2014. Throughout the years, Elena has been a passionate contributor to VdGM and WONCA: from her active engagement in the Family Violence and Emergency Special Interest Groups of VdGM, and as the Spanish National Exchange Coordinator, to her dedicated service as the Events Officer on the VdGM Executive and as a member of the WONCA Europe Conference Committee. Apart from VdGM/WONCA, she works in Ibiza Spain as a Specialist in Family and Community Medicine, Consultant GP with sub-specialization in EM. Read Elena’s interview here. Elena was nominated by her colleague, fellow young Spanish Family Doctor Dr. Rocío García-Gutiérrez Gómez.
2017 Laureate of the Fons Sips Award: Fons Sips
The inaugural award was awarded to Fons Sips in memoriam at the WONCA Europe Conference in Prague 2017. In 2004, on the occasion of the WONCA Europe Conference in Amsterdam, he used his great inspirational force to gather European young doctors and inspire them to form a group and find themselves a name… it is legendary that he started sketching a ship… and the rest is history. Read more about him in his memorial.