The availability of all awards is contingent upon the receipt of adequate funding.

Request for Applications - Deadline: May 7, 2010

The AACAP Pilot Research Award, supported by Lilly USA, LLC, offers $15,000 for child and adolescent psychiatry residents and junior faculty who have an interest in beginning a career in child and adolescent mental health research. By providing up to eight awards to child and adolescent psychiatry junior faculty members and residents for pilot research programs, we support these young investigators at a critical stage, encouraging future careers in child and adolescent psychiatry research. Recipients have the opportunity to submit a poster presentation on their research for the AACAP's 58th Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 18-23, 2011. The award also includes the cost of attending the AACAP Annual Meeting for five days.

Award Requirements

• Candidates must be board eligible/certified in child and adolescent psychiatry, or enrolled in a child psychiatry residency or fellowship program.
• Candidates must have a faculty appointment in an accredited medical school or be in a fully accredited child and adolescent psychiatry clinical research or training program.
• At the time of application, candidates may not have more than two years experience following graduation from residency/fellowship training.
• Candidates must not have any previous significant, individual research funding in the field of child and adolescent mental health. These include the following: NIMH/NIH Funding (Small Grants, R-01) or similar foundation or industry research funding. Candidates who have received or are currently receiving "T32" funding support are eligible to apply.
• Candidates must either be AACAP members or have a membership application pending (not paid by the award) and agree to submit a poster presentation on his or her research for the AACAP's 58th Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 18-23, 2011.

Application Guidelines

• Application form (will be posted soon)
• A letter of intent, no more than seven pages (Single spaced, no less than 12 pt. font), including four pages of research protocol, a one page detailed project timeline, one page budget and justification, and one page addressing the inclusion or exclusion of women and minorities.
  1. The research protocol should include the following sections: significance and specific aims, hypotheses, background and rationale, and a research plan (including data analysis plan). Research may be pre-clinical, epidemiological, or clinical.
  2. The detailed project timeline should list tentative dates of all procedures for the proposed research project.  These include but are not limited to: data collection processes, analysis of results, and final report writing.     
  3. The budget should contain sufficient detail so that each item can be separately judged. Computer related items (e.g., personal computers, printers, modems, etc.) are extremely unlikely to receive budget approval. No salary support for the principal investigator will be provided. No indirect costs for the institution will be provided. Typical budget items may include but are not limited to: subject honoraria and travel expenses, instrumentation costs, assay and lab test costs, and/or payment to research assistants.
  4. If women or minorities will not be included, detailed justification of the rationale for their exclusion is mandatory. Such exclusion may lower enthusiasm for the proposal.
• A letter of support from section chief or department chair.
• A letter of support from the proposed mentor.
• Candidate's current curriculum vitae.
• Letter detailing any current research funding (role on project, title, type of project, and source of funds).

(Human and Animal Subjects must be verified at time of award and do not need to be included with the application.)

Program Format
Award recipients are encouraged to work with a child and adolescent psychiatric investigator with expertise in their particular area of interest. Work must be completed within one year of receipt of the award. Submission of the pilot data is due on or before June 2011. All awardees are expected to attend any required events at the Annual Meeting at the AACAP’s discretion. Any unused funds must be returned to the AACAP.

AACAP has the right to waive informalities.

Application Deadline
All completed applications and attachments must be submitted by May 7, 2010. Electronic materials should be sent to asommer@aacap.org.

If you need to mail any additional attachments, please submit them to the following address. Please note all application requirements (application and attachments) must be submitted/postmarked by May 7, 2010.

Pilot Research Award
AACAP Department of Research, Training and Education
3615 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

For more information, contact the Department of Research, Training and Education at 202.966.7300, ext. 157 or email Alyssa Sommer, Research Coordinator at asommer@aacap.org.