Ceva’s support for the veterinarians of tomorrow
The relationship has developed because our company believes strongly in supporting the ‘veterinarians of tomorrow’ but also to learn from this younger, international group of future practitioners who bring new perspectives and ideas to the world of veterinary health.
The World Veterinary Association (WVA) launched its own awards in 2017 after being invited to observe the highly successful Ceva Welfare Awards in the UK. They were so impressed with the Ceva model that they decided to launch their own Global Welfare Awards, supported by Ceva, celebrating veterinarians, vet nurses, technicians and vet schools and universities, who had gone ‘above and beyond’ in the field of animal welfare.
For the 2019 Awards, a decision was made to include a veterinary student category and the IVSA was asked to partner with this initiative.
The first winner of the Student of the Year category in the awards was Aimée Lieberum, who, at the time, was attending Leipzig University in Germany. The Ceva team was so impressed with Aimée’s work in the field of animal welfare that, following the Awards, they decided to support her to travel to Thailand, where she was hosted by a fellow winner, Professor Parntep Ratanakorn of Bangkok, Thailand. Ceva also partnered with Aimée and another 2019 winner, Dr. Anette van der Aa of the Netherlands, to launch a new podcast: “Dare to Care” which highlighted different aspects of animal welfare, often involving fellow veterinary students.
In 2024 and 2025 Ceva funded grants for three IVSA members to take part in projects connected with past winners of the WVA veterinary awards and a programme in Africa, supported by the Ceva Wildlife Research Fund. Susanna Salvatori, the former External Relations Officer with the IVSA, visited Ceva’s facility in South Africa, and then travelled to Botswana, where she participated in a programme to reduce leopard-livestock conflicts by developing scent-based deterrents as alternatives to lethal control.
Ceva’s video impresses the veterinarians of tomorrow
Fellow IVSA member, Oojas Pardeshi used his grant to work alongside veterinary researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany, which won the WVA’s Veterinary College of the Year Award in 2022. Later this year IVSA member Sujit Regmni will carry out his internship at another education category winner, the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland.
As well as supporting the IVSA’s 2025 Conference, Ceva was asked to submit a video presentation for the event’s opening ceremony. The theme of the Conference was “the expanded scope of veterinary medicine and a key element of that agenda was the impact of climate change. The video opened by highlighting Ceva’s support for the Australian, Vets for Climate Action movement, and its work with indigenous pastoralists and veterinarians in the remote Northern Territory of Australia. The ‘Top End’, as it is known, is seen as a barometer for climate change, having suffered years of intense drought and wildfires, followed by widespread flooding, resulting in the death of millions of livestock and wildlife.
Vets for Climate Action is planning to take its movement global and is keen to involve students and the IVSA in advocating for change around the world.