Research Grants and Awards

(Apply through ESA website)

ESA Research Seed Grant

ESA Early Career Publication Grant

 ESA Research Seed Grants

Application Closing date: 9 August 2024

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).

Applications involving ENSA (Endocrine Nurses Society of Australasia) are encouraged.

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    

• 2024 - Sunita De Sousa, Christopher Yates, Ayanthi Wijewardene
• 2023 - Matti Gild, Fran Milat, Kelly Walton
• 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 Early Career Publication Grant 

Application Closing date: 31 December 2024

Conditions of award

The purpose of this grant is to support publication of a high impact endocrinology-focussed scientific article by an ESA early career member through reimbursement of publication costs.

Publication Grants are valued up to $3,000. Up to two grants will be awarded annually, one to a clinical member and one to a basic science member.

Recipients will be asked to write a short summary of their research to contribute to ESA communications.

Applicants can apply for both this award and the Young Investigator Scientific Article Award for the same publication, but can only receive one award.

 Eligibility

• The recipient must have been an ESA member for at least 12 months at the time of application.
• Applicants can hold 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.
• The applicant must be first or last author on the article (equal first or last authorship acceptable).
• The article must have already been accepted by the journal, and can have already been published within 12 months of the application deadline.

 Application

Applications are to be submitted online.

Applications must include:

• A short description on the importance of the research/article, and why the applicant has chosen the particular journal for submission (Max 200 words).
• A copy of the article (either the version accepted by the journal or the final published version).
• If the article is not yet published, then evidence of acceptance by the journal (e.g. acceptance email) is required.
• A short CV (Max 4 pages).
• 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 primarily on the quality of the article and secondly on the quality of the journal. The applicant’s track record will also be taken into account, particularly in instances where there are applications of otherwise similar quality.

Publication Grants will be awarded at the sole discretion of ESA Council. It is anticipated that successful applications will be for articles published in journals with an impact factor of at least 3 and/or a Scientific Journal Ranking of Q1 or Q2 (see https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php).

A commemorative plaque will be presented at the dinner associated with the AGM. The awardee will receive free registration to the ASM.

Submission

Submit your ESA Early Career Publication Grant application online.

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