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Dr. Benjamin Goldberg Research Award Competition

Dr. Benjamin Goldberg Research Award Competition

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 Award Competition in Intellectual Disability. The Dr. Benjamin Goldberg Research Award is meant to facilitate research specific to Intellectual Disabilities (as defined by DSM-5).

The projects eligible for the Dr. Benjamin Goldberg Research Award are not limited in scope. Rather, any basic science, clinical, or applied research project that has the potential to contribute to the understanding of Intellectual Disability will be considered.

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, a proposal about Autism Spectrum Disorder will only be accepted if it is about Autism Spectrum Disorder in people with Intellectual Disability. The proposal must explicitly state how the proposed research project relates to Intellectual Disability (see section 3 on Relevance Statement in the Application Instructions).

This competition is open to any student (undergraduate or graduate) registered at Western University or any other University or College in southwestern Ontario. However, in all cases, a member of the Western University faculty (who is eligible to hold research funds at Western University) MUST be listed as the supervisor.

Applications will be accepted without preference from any department, school, or faculty. The value of an award is 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 following rating criteria will be used to evaluate each submission:

Applicant (marked out of 5 points; includes experience, ability to complete the project, resources, supervision, etc.)
Project and Methodology (marked out of 5 points)
Relevance to Developmental Disabilities (marked out of 5 points)

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 Developmental Disabilities Program will be considered for funding support. Funds for successful applications will be available as soon as possible after the competition. Project completion dates will depend on the project description.

Research grant recipients will be expected to present their findings at a session of the Developmental Disabilities Clinical and Research Rounds or our Annual Developmental Disabilities Academic Research Day.

Each student will only be funded once. Each project will only be funded once in a three-year period.