Awards

Small Grant Award (pre 2021)

Under management of the Committee for Scientific Affairs and Awards

APPLICATION DEADLINE is 28th February 2021

+ AIMS (click to open/close)

The intention of this award scheme is to make small pump priming grants to ESPID members to support research work design to produce pilot data for further external funding. The declaration below must be signed by the applicant and the applicant’s Head of Department in order to verify this. Awards of up to Euro 10,000 will be made. The number of awards funded will depend upon the number and quality of applications received. If the scheme succeeds and is maintained, each awardee will be eligible to make a single follow up application for further funding up to Euro 10,000 for the same project, based on the results from the first award.

It is envisaged that the grants will provide for purchase of laboratory consumables or small amounts of administrative time or other technical or IT support. It is not envisaged that the awards will fund the salary of the applicant.

Please note that an applicant or supporting centre cannot receive a Fellowship Award and a Small Grant Award for the same project.

Completed applications for ESPID Small Grant Awards must be received by the deadlien stated. Awards will be decided and made by 31 January. They will be announced at the ESPID Annual Meeting in May of the same year, by when it is hoped that work will be in progress.

+ ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA (click to open/close)

UPDATE - The criteria for selecting the best application has recently been updated, therefore please familiarise yourself with the criteria below before submitting your application. 

Applications from individuals who have previously received an ESPID small grant award will not be considered - except that, following receipt of a satisfactory progress report, previous applicants may apply for follow up funding for the same small grant-funded project once and once only. (Previous recipients of other ESPID awards, are not excluded, apart from ESPID Fellowships that were awarded for the same or closely related research work). 

  • Applicants must be "good standing" members of ESPID at the time of the deadline(click here to download the ESPID "good standing" member criteria). Applicants must have paid their current subscription before applying for this award.
  • On the day of the application deadline, you must be within maximum 16 years of your Medical qualification, or, if you are not medically qualified, your PhD or the highest degree you hold. A scanned copy of relevant degree certificate showing the date it was awarded must be submitted with the application. Time tolerance is given for those individuals who have taken a career break for maternity, adoption or any other personal reasons. In such case, the 16 years limit will be extended by the total length of time taken out of work. A written confirmation, signed by the department head, will be requested. Applications will be considered on an individual basis where a supporting letter explaining special circumstances is received and special leave will still be taken into consideration and discussed with the ESPID Board.
  • Applications must conform to formatting requirements as detailed below.

Applications will first be assessed for eligibility and complleteness by the ESPID Secretariat. Applications not fulfilling all of these criteria will not be put forward for judging. 

+ CRITERIA FOR SELECTING THE BEST APPLICANT (click to open/close)

All eligible applications will be judged against the following criteria by the ESPID Committee for Scientific Affairs and Awards (weighting as shown):

Directly relevant to paediatric infectious diseases?*

Y/N

Are the necessary additional resources, funds and equipment clearly offered and available? (Including the salary and personal support for the candidate)*

Y/N

Does the applicant have a clear and primary role in undertaking the research?*

Y/N

*If No, to any of the above then not eligible for the award

 

Criteria

Score

Evidence of excellence during previous undergraduate and postgraduate activities – high grades, prizes, presentations, publications etc. This should be assessed relative to career stage and accounting for e.g., parental leave, clinical vs research post etc.

/5

Is the rationale and background to the research clearly presented and the need for the research well-articulated?

/5

Is there a clearly formulated hypothesis or objective?

(For re-applications, consider if the project achieved the aims of the original proposal and results are clearly presented)

/5

Is there a realistic prospect of achieving the objective or generating data to support further funding applications?

/5

Is there a clearly structured and scientifically justified plan of investigation which identifies the methodologies to be used?

/5

Is the proposal original / novel?

(For re-applications, consider if this forms a logical continuum with the initial application)

/5

Is the proposal well-presented and clearly written?

/5

Is the budget appropriate for the proposed project?

(For re-applications, consider if money was spent appropriately according to the estimated budget or justification for deviations provided)

/5

Total

/45

 

Support

The initial award will be for a maximum of Euro 10,000. Payments will only be made to host institutions or hospitals and not to individuals. ESPID takes no responsibilities for the further administration or use of the funds beyond the point of disbursement but requires progress report and final reports to be provided as detailed below. 

 

+ APPLICATION PROCESS (click to open/close)

 

Please view the award Guidelines which details the information which must be submitted. Click:  Application Guidelines. We recommend you read the guidelines before completing both your online application and cost table. Candidates are asked to include the following as part of their online application:

  1. Application Form  
  2. Costs table
  3. Letter of support from applicant's supervisor/manager
  4. CV of applicant - see  application guidelines for details re: content 

+ PROGRESS REPORT (click to open/close)

A progress report must be prepared by all recipients of the small grant award and submitted by 28th February 2021, to the ESPID Secretariat at admin@espid.org. This may form part of an application for follow up funding (maximum one further Euro 10,000 grant).

The report should detail results accomplished to that date, problems, if any, encountered, any alterations to the original protocol that may have become necessary, and any completed or forthcoming presentations, publications or grant applications arising from the grant. The report will be reviewed by the Committee for Scientific Affairs and Awards. In case awardees fail to provide progress report they will not be eligible to apply for any other award and their supervisors will not be eligible to support other applicants.

+ FINAL REPORT (click to open/close)

A final report must be submitted to the Award Committee at the completion of the funding period. In addition, applicants are encouraged to submit their results for presentation at the ESPID Annual Meeting.

+ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (click to open/close)

The recipient of the grant award must acknowledge ESPID in any publications that result from the research enabled by the award.

Acknowledgements should be worded as follows: that “the work was supported by an ESPID Grant Award”.

 

Information

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Application GuidelinesApplication GuidelinesDownload