Research Awards and Grants

An annual essay award will be available to an undergraduate medical student at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. The essay should describe an experience managing a patient at any stage in the lifespan with a developmental disability. This includes management of physical health, mental health or both, either in the hospital system or in the community, including family medicine. 

The essay should be 1,500 to 2,000 words in length and typed double spaced with the total word count placed at the top right hand corner of the first page. Entries beyond 2,000 words will not be considered.

The amount of the award is $1,000. All essays submitted will be published in the Clinical Bulletin of the Developmental Disabilities Program. 

To apply for this award, please visit the UME Awards website.

The application deadline for this award is March 31 of each year. 

If you have any questions, please contact Jason Widdes

Deadlines for Proposals: March 31, 2025

Eligibility requirements: The Developmental Disabilities Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the Annual Dr. Benjamin Goldberg Research Grant Competition. 

This grant is meant to facilitate research specific to intellectual disabilities (as defined by DSM 5).  Proposals may involve investigations of causes, diagnosis, and/or treatment of intellectual disabilities (ID).  Proposals may also involve conditions that are comorbid with ID (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder or Epilepsy), but the project must ultimately be directly about ID.  

This competition is open to any student (undergraduate or graduate) registered at the Western University Community. Applications are also invited from students registered at other Universities or Colleges in southwestern Ontario.

In all cases, a member of the Western University faculty (who is eligible to hold research funds) must be listed as a Supervisor. Applications from all academic departments will be accepted, without preference to any department, school, or faculty. The value of an award may range up to $5,000, with the actual value of each award being determined by the number of funded proposals and the quality of each proposal. The awards are not limited in scope – rather they are for any and all research projects which are of relevance to the understanding of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of intellectual disabilities.

The following rating criteria will be used to evaluate each submission:

1. Applicant (marked out of 5, includes experience, ability to complete the project, resources, supervision, etc.)
2. Project and Methodology (marked out of 5).
3. Relevance to Intellectual Disabilities (marked out of 5). 

Proposals must be received by March 31 of each year. Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria and whose work is judged to be relevant to the mission of the DDP will be considered for funding support. Recipients will be notified after the review process, and projects will be funded in the same academic year, beginning in May, or sooner if possible. Project completion dates will depend on the project description.

Research grant recipients will be required to provide proof of publication of their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, OR to submit a summary of their research for publication in the Clinical Bulletin of the Developmental Disabilities Program. They will also be encouraged to present their research at the annual Developmental Disabilities Research Day.

Submission Instructions

Complete the application form linked above.

1. Research Proposal.  Please outline your project here.  Limit 1000 words.  

2. Relevance Statement.  Please outline how exactly your project is relevant to the Developmental Disabilities Program and it's mission.  Limit 1000 words.  

 https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/ddp/research/research_grants.html  

3. A budget

4. Applicant Biosketch.  Please use NIH format.  Limit 1000 words.  https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm 

5. Supervisor Biosketch.  Please use NIH format.  Limit 1000 words.  

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Jason Widdes

Deadline for Proposals: There will be no competition this year, we look forward to starting this competition again in 2025

Competition History

During the 2009-2010 academic year, the Developmental Disabilities of the Department of Psychiatry established an annual research award to encourage and fund new research specific to Developmental Disabilities (DD). It is named the “C. Kingsley Allison Award”, named after the donor of the endowment, who was an executive of the “O Pee Chee Corporation” of London.  

In 1951 there was a small gathering of parents who called themselves the "London Parents Council for  Retarded Children". They established a school at St. Paul's Anglican Church, and Kingsley Allison's daughter Mary Beth was one of the six original pupils.

Under the new name: the "Association for the Help of Retarded Children", Mr. Allison became the president in 1953, and his wife was a volunteer at the school. He brought his business experience to the group, and the AHRC in London became one of the first associations in the province to focus on the needs, educational and otherwise of children with DD. Under his direction, the small school moved from the church to a vacant school on Gore Road.

The "Association for the Help of Retarded Children" grew into the " London and District Association for the Mentally Retarded" and then into "Community Living London". Given his leadership, it is appropriate that Kingsley Allison's name is still associated with the work to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities. 

Competition Description

The C. Kingsley Allison Research Grant is meant to facilitate research specific to Intellectual Disabilities (as defined by DSM 5). Proposals may involve investigations of causes, diagnosis, and/or treatment of Intellectual Disabilities. Proposals may also involve conditions that are comorbid with Intellectual Disability (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder or Epilepsy), but the project must ultimately be directly about Intellectual Disability. That is, for example, a proposal about Autism Spectrum Disorder will only be accepted if it is about Autism Spectrum Disorder in people with Intellectual Disability. Relevance statements and project descriptions must clearly outline how the proposed research relates to this population. Relevance to the field of Intellectual Disabilities is one of the most important criteria in reviewing proposals. The review committee looks to applicants to help us understand why their particular project warrants support when resources are limited. Although the relevance may seem obvious to the applicant, the review committee still looks for an explicit statement about relevance – it is up to the candidate to convince the reviewers of the project’s relevance.  

Eligibility requirements

This competition is open to any student (undergraduate or graduate), faculty member, or employee of the Western University Community. Applications are also invited from non-Western University persons working with agencies in the London region providing services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

In all cases, a member of the Western University faculty (who is eligible to hold research funds) must be listed as an Investigator or Supervisor. Applications from all departments of the University will be accepted, without preference to any department, school, or faculty. Value of an award may range up to $9,000, with the actual value of each award being determined by the number of funded proposals and the quality of each proposal. The awards are not limited in scope – rather they are for any and all research projects which are of relevance to the understanding of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of intellectual disabilities.

*Projects will only be funded once.

*Applicants will only be funded once in a 3 year period.

The following rating criteria will be used to evaluate each submission:

1. Applicant (marked out of 5, includes experience, ability to complete the project, resources, supervision, etc.).
2. Project and Methodology (marked out of 5).
3. Relevance to Intellectual Disabilities (marked out of 5). 

Proposals must be received by October 31 of each year. Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria and whose work is judged to be relevant to the mission of the DDP will be considered for funding support. Recipients will be notified after the review process, and projects will be funded in the same academic year, beginning in January, or sooner if possible. Project completion dates will depend on the project description.

Funding for successful projects will be released to the PI after ethics approval has been received.  

Research grant recipients will be required to provide proof of publication of their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, OR to submit a summary of their research for publication in the Clinical Bulletin of the Developmental Disabilities Program. They will also be encouraged to present their research at the annual Developmental Disabilities Research Day.

This grant is not available this year (2024) but will re-open in 2025

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Jason Widdes