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ESA Research Seed Grant

 ESA Research Seed Grants

Application Closing date: 1 September 2023

Conditions of award

The purpose of this award is to provide funding to support early stage research or small research projects by a mid-career ESA member.  These grants may be used for research in any area of endocrinology. The research must be conducted in Australia.

Seed Grants are valued at $10,000. 

Eligibility

• The recipient must be an ESA member for at least 12 months at the time of application
• Applicants can have either a clinical or basic science qualification.
• Applicants must be 15 years or less since graduating from their higher degree. Allowance will be made for any career disruptions.
• Applications for further funding for a project that has already been funded by an ESA seed grant will not be considered.

Application

Applications are to be submitted online. Applications must include:

• A project plan (Max 2 pages) - This must include project title, institution and department where the project will be conducted, hypothesis and aims, background, methods, expected outcomes and an itemised budget.
• A short CV (Max 4 pages) - This should include qualifications, positions/appointments, relevant research experience and skills, publications, conference presentations, awards, grants and/or achievements, any other track record information relevant to the proposal. This information should refer to the last 5 years only (adjusted for career interruption where relevant).
• Career disruption, if relevant (Max 1 page).
• One referee report (approx. 1 page) from a referee who can comment on the personal, clinical and scientific suitability of the candidate and proposed project.
• Letter from the Head of the Department where the research will be conducted, indicating the availability of suitable facilities and scientific support.
• Letter from the relevant Ethics Committee - confirming approval for the proposed project (if relevant). The ethics approval may be pending at the time of application but the seed grant will not be awarded until a certificate of ethics approval is provided to the ESA Secretariat. 

All documents to be uploaded in word (.doc or .docx) or PDF format.

Selection

Applications are assessed by a Selection Committee selected by ESA Council. The selection committee has a duty to apply the criteria equitably to all applicants.
Applicants will be assessed on:

• Track record: including publications, abstracts and presentations to national and international meetings, awards and achievements and referee comments (35% weighting).
• Project proposal: assessed on scientific quality, relevance to endocrinology, clinical, translation or scientific impact and feasibility to complete the study in a 12-month period (max 2 pages) (65% weighting).

Administration of the Seed Grant

The award recipient must be undertaking work within a hospital, university department, research institute or other approved institute within Australia. The financial administration of the award will be through the appropriate finance office of the institution.

Report

At the conclusion of the award, the recipient must submit their research findings for presentation at the Endocrine Society of Australia annual scientific meeting.

Twelve months after commencement of the seed grant tenure, a research report for inclusion into the ESA annual report must be submitted to the ESA council for review via email addressed to the ESA. Secretariat: ijohnson@endocrinesociety.org.au

Publications

Any publication(s) (papers or conference abstracts) derived from the project must acknowledge the financial support of the Endocrine Society of Australia.

Apply Online

Submit your ESA Research Seed Grants application online.

Past winners    

• 2022 - Martyn Bullock, Pieter Jansen, Kelly Short
• 2021 - Ann McCormack, Nicholas Russell, Varun Venkatesh, Diane Rebourcet
• 2020 - Ada Cheung, Luba Sominsky
• 2019 - Morton Burt, Caroline Jung, Adam Rose, Aneta Stefanidis
• 2018 - Mitchell Lawrence, Kirsty Walters, Jun Yang

ESA Ferring Innovation and Clinical Excellence (FICE) Award

Application deadline: This award is no longer being offered.

Conditions of Award

The purpose of this award is to support a project in the area of either male hypogonadism OR diabetes insipidus.

One award of $15,000 will be made, funded by an unrestricted grant from Ferring to the Endocrine Society of Australia.

A final report will be required by ESA and Ferring within 6 months of completion. The report must be emailed to the ESA Secretariat ijohnson@endocrinesociety.org.au. 

At the conclusion of the award, the recipient must submit their research findings for presentation at the Endocrine Society of Australia annual scientific meeting.

Purpose of the award

This award will provide funding to an individual who has developed special clinical skills in Endocrinology, to encourage innovation and clinical excellence in the area of male hypogonadism or diabetes insipidus.

The funds must be used improve a specific Endocrine service, by way of a clinical quality use of medicine or research project related to management of male hypogonadism or diabetes insipidus. The research shall be undertaken in an Australian facility that provides salary support and infrastructure to support the awardee achieve that goal.

Priority will be given to applications where the proposed improvement may lead to a model that could be transferable to other Endocrine services.

While the award money may or may not involve a scientific research component, clear goals of how the clinician will utilise the grant should be provided and metrics around the initiative should be collected and disseminated (e.g., ESA abstract submission).

Eligibility

The Applicant must:

• Have been an active financial member of the Endocrine Society of Australia for at least 12 months.
• Have at least 12 months of specialised endocrine training or have commenced first year at the time of application; OR be within five (5) years of the award of FRACP or PhD.
• Undertake the project in Australia.
• Be an Australian citizen or hold an Australian residency permit.

The Sponsoring Institution must:

• Provide salary support to enable the applicant to perform as an endocrinologist or endocrine advanced trainee within an institution in Australia.
• Provide sufficient infrastructure to support the endocrinologist or endocrine advanced trainee (e.g. Endocrine or Andrology Clinic, or support for Endocrine/Andrology Specialist Nurse).

Application

Applications are to be submitted online. These must include:

• A project plan (Max 2 pages) - This must include project title, institution and department where the project will be conducted, hypothesis and aims, background, methods, expected outcomes and an itemised budget.
• A short CV (Max 4 pages) - This should include qualifications, positions/appointments, relevant research experience and skills, publications, conference presentations, awards, grants and/or achievements, extracurricular expertise, such as scientific membership, administrative expertise, work experience in research, and any other track record information relevant to the proposal. This information should refer to the last 5 years only (adjusted for career interruption where relevant).
• Letter of support from the Head of the Department where the project will be conducted. 
  • Confirming your position as an endocrinologist or advanced trainee, and
  • Indicating the availability of suitable facilities and/or support from your department.
• A letter from the relevant Ethics Committee confirming approval for the proposed project (if relevant). The ethics approval may be pending at the time of application, but the scholarship will not be awarded until a certificate of ethics approval is provided to the ESA secretariat.
• Career disruption, if relevant (Max 1 page).

All documents to be uploaded in word (.doc or .docx) or PDF format.

Selection

Applications are assessed by a Selection Committee selected by ESA Council.
Applicants will be assessed on:

• Project proposal: assessed on scientific quality, relevance to endocrinology, clinical, translation or scientific impact and feasibility to complete the study in a 12-month period.
• Track record (CV)

The project must not involve research that generates outcomes specifically related to, or stipulates/promotes the use of, any Ferring medicinal product.

Preference will be given to applicants who have not previously received this award.

Administration of the Award

The award recipient must be undertaking work within a hospital, university department, research institute or other approved institute. The financial administration of the award will be through the appropriate finance office of the institution.

Any grant funds that are awarded must not be used for overhead or operational expenses such as salary support or day to day running costs of a medical institution.

Report

At the conclusion of the award, the recipient must submit their research findings for presentation at the Endocrine Society of Australia annual scientific meeting.

Publications

Any publications (papers or conference abstracts) derived from the project must acknowledge and financial support of the Endocrine Society of Australia and disclose the award funding from Ferring.

Past winners  

• 2020 - Ada Cheung
• 2019 - Nandini Shankara-Narayana