Deadline: November 1st 

The INfORM 2020-2021 Early Career Researcher (ECR) Small Grant

 Purpose:

The 2020-2021 INfORM Early Career Researcher (ECR) Small Grant will provide up to U$ 2,500 to support an outstanding project led by an INfORM early career member. Projects should align with the INfORM scope, through clinical, translational or populational research in the field of orofacial pain and related disorders. See below for details about team and project eligibility.

 Eligibility & Criteria:

Eligible teams

1)      Applicant must have been an active INfORM member for at least 6 months prior to the application date, who is an ECR in one of the following categories:

a)       Predoctoral: Currently enrolled within an academic institution in a pre-doctoral B.D.S, D.D.S., D.M.D., M.D., or PhD program or other similar degree program in any country;

OR

b)      Postdoctoral: Within 5 years of graduation of highest attained degree and no longer enrolled in a degree-granting program, residing in a low to upper-middle income country according to the 2020-2021 World Bank Classification . 

2)      If Applicant is a Predoctoral ECR, a Project Supervisor (non-ECR or Postdoctoral ECR) must be included as one of the research team members in the application form and copied (cc’d) in the application submission email

3)      Research team included in the application form may be composed of 1 to 5 (Applicant + 4) researcher(s). The Project Supervisor also counts towards the maximum of 5 research team members.

Eligible projects

4)      Stage:

Proposals may include, but are not limited to:

a)       Planning and grant writing

b)      Feasibility or pilot testing

c)       Data collection or access to secondary data

d)      Publication or dissemination

5)      Topics within INfORM’s scope of research in orofacial pain and related disorders:

a)       Clinical, patient-oriented research, including clinical trials or human experimental studies;

b)      Translational research addressing the first (basic to clinical research) and second (clinical research to practice/populations) translational gaps;

c)       Populational research on etiology or prognosis/clinical outcomes

Selection criteria

·       Fit with INfORM scope of research.

·       ECR role within project and potential for career benefit.

·       Significance:

i.         Importance of scientific question or knowledge gap.

ii.       Potential for health and/or socioeconomic impact.

·       Innovation: Originality and novelty of proposed project (e.g. theoretical concepts, methodologies, or interventions).

·       Approach: Robustness and clarity of proposed design and methods.

·       Investigator(s):

i.         Research team skillset and commitment to carry out proposed project.

ii.       New collaborations among INfORM ECR members or between INfORM ECR and senior members.

·       Environment: Features of the research context (e.g. academic institution, availability of other funding sources) that support the need for this small grant, and the likelihood of a successful outcome.

·      Application Process:

The Applicant will submit the following two documents to kapos@uw.edu and mkoutris@gmail.com, with the email of the Project Supervisor cc’d if the Applicant is a Predoctoral ECR:

A)      Completed Application Form, saved as a PDF (6 pages).

B)      Project Proposal: Single-spaced A4 or US letter-sized pages at size 12-point Arial font with 2.54cm (1 inch) margins, saved as a PDF (max. 5 pages), with the following sections:
(Attention to page limits!)

1.       Abstract (0.5 page max.);

2.       Significance & Innovation: brief literature review, rationale/hypothesis, goal(s)
(0.5 page max.);

3.       Approach: description of design and methodology, addressing the following subsections as applicable to proposed project stage and topic (1 page max.):

Study design, population of interest, eligibility criteria, comparison groups (i.e. intervention vs. control or exposed vs. unexposed), outcome(s) of interest, sample size/power calculation, recruitment/sampling strategy, access to data sources and/or data collection procedures, randomization, blinding, allocation concealment, experimental procedures, human subjects protection and analytic strategy;

4.       Results: main findings (preliminary/expected, if appropriate) (0.5 page max.);

5.       Conclusions & Future Plans: impact for the field of orofacial pain and related disorders and next steps (0.5 page max.);

6.       References;

7.       Timeline: projected dates for completing each major step of the project;

8.       Budget: itemized proposed use of funds from this small grant and brief justification (1-2 sentences per item). If project requires additional resources for implementation, please outline these items and how these needs will be met with other source(s) of support.

·      Deadline:

All application materials should be received by 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time Zone, US) November 1, 2020.

·      Review and Selection Process:

Applications will be pre-screened by the INfORM board and those that meet eligibility criteria and the proposal format will be scored by external reviewers. The awarded team will be contacted via email and announced through the INfORM social media profiles by January 2021. (Follow us on Twitter @INFORM_IADR and Facebook “International Network for Orofacial Pain and Related Disorders Methodology”). The award will be presented at the INfORM business meeting during the IADR General Session in Boston, July 2021.

·      Sponsor Informationn

This small grant is sponsored by the INfORM network.

·      Award Coordinator: