Abidin Early Career Research Award and Grant

Abidin Early Career Award and Grant  – $20,000

Application Period October 1-January 5

Announcement by February 21

 The Richard “Dick” Abidin Early Career Award and Grant  is intended to recognize an early career psychologist who has established a program of empirical research that has had a major impact on the field’s understanding of psychopathology, prevention, assessment, treatment, or public policy relative to child and adolescent development or mental health. The grant is provided to enhance the awardee’s research program and/or to enable the awardee to initiate a new effort that extends their work.

The Abidin Early Career Award and Grant is named in honor of Dick Abidin, Ed.D, ABPP, the past Treasurer and a longtime member of SCCAP.  Before SCCAP became Division 53, Dr. Abidin served in other leadership roles of Division 12, Section 1 including President and Member at Large.  SCCAP is very thankful to Dr. Abidin for his guidance and service to SCCAP and is pleased to honor him by creating this award.

Eligibility:

• The awardee shall be no more than 10 years post-doctoral degree and be of early career rank (postdoctoral fellow or junior faculty rank) at the time of nomination.
• Self-nominations will be accepted.
• Elected Board Members of SCCAP Div 53 are not eligible
• The nominee must be a member of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP) for at least one year at the time of application.
• Applicants must be domiciled in the United States of America.

No indirect costs are allowed for this award. This is considered an unrestricted gift; the only requirement is that the funds must be used for expenses associated with the award recipient’s research.  The award period is September 1, 2025-August 31, 2027.

Application requirements:

1. A double-spaced statement (no more than 5 pages, 1” margins, 11-pt font) highlighting the applicant’s contribution and the impact of their work on the field to date, along with a description of their plan to build their program of research. Impact of work must be evidenced by documentable significant changes to practice or policy or conceptualization of youth mental health/illness. Numbers of publications, grants and other awards given to the applicant will not be considered evidence of impact.  The successful awardee should address the question “what about the field of clinical child and adolescent mental health is improved as a result of my research to date?” and “If awarded, how will I extend my work in a new or expanded research project?”
2. Two (2) letters of recommendation, one from a research colleague familiar with the nominee’s work and the other from a senior investigator in the nominee’s area of research with whom the nominee has not collaborated Letters of recommendation may be no longer than 2 single-spaced pages.
3. A recent copy of the applicant’s CV.
4. A one-page budget statement describing how the applicant would use the grant funds.
5. The applicant must be a member of SCCAP at the time of application.
6. Documentation should be sent as one PDF document to using the applicant’s name and the award name in the title (e.g. Jayne Smith Abidin Early Career Award and Grant).

Applications should be emailed to SCCAP@sccap53.org

Submission Deadline: Applications are due January 5 (by 5 p.m. EST). The award announcement will be made in February. No late applications or applications that fail to meet requirements will be accepted.

The awardee will receive a $20,000 grant to continue their research efforts.

The awardee will be invited to give a “speed presentation” during the SCCAP Conference. The SCCAP Conference is held every other year, therefore the presentation may occur in the following year from the actual award presentation. In the year the SCCAP Conference is held, the awardee will receive up to a $1,500 travel stipend to cover transportation, lodging, and meals to the SCCAP conference. Award winners may also be invited to present their work in one of the many venues SCCAP has for providing educational opportunities for its members.

The award will be announced in the SCCAP newsletter, listserv, social media, and website. In addition to the presentation at the SCCAP Conference, the awardee will be expected to submit a brief article for the newsletter on their research at the conclusion of the two year award period. Abidin Award winners will be expected to contribute to the review of future award applications.

SCCAP encourages and welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds with respect to age, ethnicity, disability, gender, geography, nationality, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Sincerely,

Anna Van Meter, Ph.D.

Abidin Early Career Award Chair