Research Awards

GESA Career Development Award

Closing Date: 31 August 2007
To provide bridging support for a graduate to establish a career as an independent researcher into gastrointestinal disease and sciences in Australia, after a period of training overseas.

This award may be used either for payment of a salary for the applicant or for technical assistance and/or for consumables or equipment to be used in proposed research studies.

Number

One award shall be advertised each year, for commencement in the following year.

Value

$50,000 may be expended over a 12 or 24 months period with the agreement of the Research Committee.

Applicants should prepare a budget, outlining and justifying the proposed use of the funds.

Eligibility

The applicant is required to:

Read, understand and agree to all the requirements listed in the 2007 Instruction booklet.
Be a current financial member of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, defined as "being a paid-up member of the Society for at least one year prior to applying for an award";
Have spent a minimum of six months working outside Australia researching gastrointestinal diseases and sciences or plan to spend up to six months overseas as part of the award; and
Either be overseas at the time of the closing date for applications or have returned to work in Australia within twelve months of the closing date.
Successful applicants are required to present research work originating from the award on at least one occasion at Australian Gastroenterology Week prior to completion of the award.
It is not a requirement that applicants hold a higher degree, although this will carry weight in the selection process.

Additional Earnings

The majority of the time during the award is to be spent in research, however this does not preclude the applicant from being paid from another source for some of the time spent doing the work required to complete the project, e.g. payment of a VMO session in which endoscopy will be carried out, and in which material will be collected for purposes of the project. However, this must be declared at the time of application, or approval sought if the opportunity arises during the tenure of the grant. It may lead to a budgetary adjustment in the following ways:

The applicant may require a sizeable proportion of the funds to be spent on equipment or expendables that relate to the project thus justifying retention of the full amount

Alternatively, the stipend may be reduced at the discretion of the Committee depending on circumstances.

Selection Criteria

Major criteria shall be:

The quality of the proposed program;
Activities and achievements of the applicant; and
Financial need, greater priority will be given to funding the salary of the applicant than equipment purchase or funding of an assistant.

Reporting

Recipients are expected to attend the next Australian Gastroenterology Week (AGW) following the granting of the award.

A full report is to be submitted to the committee within two months of completing the tenure of the award. The report will indicate the proportion of funds used towards salary, consumables and equipment, and will contain a 200-400 word summary of how the support aided the scientific work and career development of the recipient.