Research Scholar Award

SHEA’s Research Scholar Award is a program that funds one proposal for up to $40,000 to an early investigator within 5 years of completion of training to conduct a research project that address knowledge gaps and new challenges in healthcare epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship research. The winner will be announced during the SHEA Business meeting at IDWeek.

Eligibility Criteria:

Grant funding is available for early investigators with an MPH, PhD, PharmD, MD, or similar terminal degree and within 5 years of completion of training (questions about eligibility should be sent to epicompetition@shea-online.org). This funding supports a mentoring experience and is awarded to applicants who submit proposals that demonstrate novel healthcare epidemiology research that aligns with SHEA’s research priorities.

***SHEA is extending the eligibility requirements for up to two years to allow for flexibility for those whose training dates were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically:

  • Someone whose eligibility for this award would have ended in 2021 is now eligible to apply through end of the 2023 calendar year.
  • Someone whose eligibility for this award would have ended in 2022 is now eligible to apply through the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Funding: Each year SHEA expects to fund one $40,000 grant for the Research Scholar Award. Projects are supported for one year. Each award will not exceed $40,000. The grant is administered by SHEA and provides for indirect costs (not to exceed 8% of the total budget). Demonstrated support from an identified mentor is required.

Review Criteria: The primary criterion for evaluation of applications is the likelihood that the studies proposed will answer an important question relevant to preventing healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. Approaches that involve lab-based research projects, clinical research, social and behavioral questions, and problems in health policy are equally likely to be considered for funding. In addition to scientific merit, we will also consider several other secondary criteria in making awards, including whether the research is likely to produce data and results that can be used for the submission of a future application for extramural research support, whether the project is highly relevant to the problems in epidemiology, and whether support is likely to be valuable to the applicant in developing a career as an epidemiologist. Most, but not all, awards typically go to faculty members who have not yet reached the rank of associate professor. Proposals may involve lab-based microbial epidemiology projects, clinical epidemiology, testing of pilot interventions or health outcomes research.

A panel of reviewers will evaluate and score all proposals received by the deadline. The Winners will present preliminary results at the annual SHEA Spring Conference following the receipt of the award. Each awardee will receive a $1500 stipend to assist with conference registration and travel expenses. Although the use of the SHEA Research Network is strongly encouraged, eligible proposals are not required to use the network for their studies.

Application Procedure: Final proposals in the form of a PDF or Word file, and financial support information must be submitted to epicompetition@shea-online.org. Eligible proposals must include the following information:

  1. Name, institution, credentials, contact address, phone, and email
  2. Biographical sketch of early investigator applicant
  3. Biographical sketch of mentor and letter of confirmation
  4. Proposal
    • Project name
    • Specific aims and hypothesis of hypotheses (limit to 1 page)
    • Proposal Sections (limited to 5 pages total)
      • Background and significance of the project
      • Description of research design, methods, analytic plan, and preliminary results, (if any,) not to exceed 750 words
      • Brief description of the environment where work will be done
      • Brief description of qualifications to accomplish the work and how the proposed work fits into career and training objectives
      • Indicate that securing IRB is in process or is complete, if applicable
  1. A budget estimating the costs to carry out the project (indirect costs should not exceed 8%). The budget must not exceed $40,000.
  2. If considering the use of the SHEA Research Network, please provide a brief description of how it will be used.

All proposals will be reviewed for scientific merit by reviewers with expertise in any given proposed area of inquiry. Review of proposals will be evaluated based on alignment with SHEA’s Research Agenda, use of the SHEA Research Network if applicable, project feasibility and the likelihood for funding of a future follow-on project. Applicants will be notified via email. The panel of reviewers will evaluate and score all proposals received by the deadline. Panel reviewers will score based on standard NIH criteria.

The funding will be awarded to applicants who submit proposals that demonstrate new and novel healthcare epidemiology pilot research that aligns with SHEA’s research priorities.

Questions regarding the administration of the Research Scholar Grant Award should be directed to Lynne Batshon at epicompetition@shea-online.org.