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UCL Children and Young People's Mental Health Early Career Researchers Prizes

The CYPMH Strategy Implementation Steering Committee offers two £50 prizes for papers presenting research by early ECRs at UCL on CYPMH. Awardees will present their work at the ECR event in April 2024

Eligibility criteria

Applicant

We invite submissions from applicants who are:

  1. Currently affiliated with UCL. We welcome papers reporting research conducted at UCL as well as in the applicants’ previous affiliations.
  2. Identifying as ECRs. This includes postgraduate candidates (master and doctoral students). We also accept applications from those who have received their doctoral degree, up to 8 years from their PhD ‘viva’ oral test. We allow flexibility to accommodate career breaks, for example due to family care, health reasons, reasons related to COVID-19 such as home schooling or increased teaching load (please explain in the submission).
  3. First author or joint first author on the submitted paper. In the case of joint first author submissions, the prize would be awarded to the author, or authors, currently at UCL.

We accept multiple submissions from the same applicant. We do not accept submissions on behalf of the applicant (e.g., from their supervisor).

Paper

We welcome papers that meet the following criteria:

  1. Published or accepted for publication within 8 years from the point of submission of the intention to submit. Papers awaiting a final decision will not be considered. For papers in press, please forward the acceptance letter to the ECR committee chair, Dr Patrizia Pezzoli (p.pezzoli@ucl.ac.uk).
  2. Reporting original studies as well as reviews of any type. We also encourage the submission of studies reporting null findings.

Application process and materials

Stage 1 - Intention to submit: Applicants are invited to share their contact information and the title of the paper to be considered for the prize by 23:59 on December 15, 2023. Please note that we will only consider full applications that are preceded by an intention to submit. Click here to register your intention to submit: https://forms.gle/6hKPFNenXWt3fTzj7

Stage 2 - Full application: Applicants deemed eligible at Stage 1 will be invited to submit a full application by 23:59 on January 31, 2024. Invited applicants will receive the link to submit the full application. The full application should include:

  1. Anonymized paper. Please redact the document and any attachments (e.g., supplementary materials) to anonymize authors and their institutions. Remove any reference to the authors and institutions in the body of the paper (e.g., author contribution statement, explicit reference to prior studies from the same group, ethics approval details).
  2. Anonymized cover letter. The cover letter should be a maximum of 5000 characters including spaces (we encourage succinctness). It should be written and submitted by the applicant. The cover letter should explain the merit of the submitted paper, the role of the applicant in the execution of the work, and the significance of the applicant’s contribution, particularly considering their ECR stage. It should include the following sections:
  • Section 1 - Eligibility:
    • Briefly confirm eligibility of the applicant and paper, according to the eligibility criteria mentioned above.
    • Specify the institution(s) where the work described in the paper has been conducted.
    • Describe the applicant’s contribution to the work leading to the submitted paper (e.g., design, implementation) as well as to the paper itself.
  • Section 2 - Originality:
    • Provide evidence of creativity in the execution of the submitted work, such as in terms of the research question, approach to research question, and studied population.
    • Describe the conceptual and empirical innovation associated with the submitted work (not necessarily the novelty of the findings).
  • Section 3 - Significance:
    • Describe the relevance of the submitted paper to CYP MH research and/or practice.
    • Outline the potential or realized impact of the paper. This can encompass potential or realized applied impact (e.g., public engagement), scientific uptake (e.g., citations), or other forms of public uptake (e.g., Altmetric Attention scores).
  • Section 4 - Rigour:
    • Provide evidence of the methodological rigour of the paper.
    • Indicate whether and how the paper complies with practices to improve open science and reproducibility, such as pre-registration.
    • Describe the inclusiveness of the work presented in the paper, considering the population involved in the study and/or the research team, including the involvement of people with lived experience.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the ECR committee chair, Dr Patrizia Pezzoli (p.pezzoli@ucl.ac.uk).