Mentoring, Grants & Awards

WES Early Career Investigator Awards

Purpose: Catalyst grant targeted to early-career individuals
Target area: Endometriosis or Adenomyosis
Eligibility: Applicant must be a WES member and meet early-career definitions:

Clinicians and allied health professionals (e.g., physiotherapist, dietitian, pharmacist, psychologist, etc.): Within six years of independent practice (full time equivalent)

Scientists (e.g., molecular biologist, geneticist, epidemiologist, sociologist, demographer, economist, etc.): Within ten years after conferring of PhD/ScD/DPhil/equivalent degree or demonstrably equivalent professional training (full time equivalent). This definition includes early-career faculty, as well as post-doctoral fellows, research associates, or other research positions without an independent faculty position in which case the applicant must provide the contact information of a supervisor/mentor who will hold the funds.

Grants to be awarded

  1. 20K CAD grant for clinician applicant
  2. 20K CAD grant for scientist applicant

To be used over 12 months from date of funding transfer

Application

  1. Title page: information on applicant and institution
  2. Lay summary: 200 words
  3. Scientific summary: 250 words
  4. Proposal: 1500 words (background, aims, hypotheses, methods (including sample size or power justification), statistical analysis plan, anticipated outcomes, knowledge translation and/or future research (particularly important if pilot or proof of principle study proposal)
  5. Budget: 1 page (with justifications)
  6. Supervisor letter of support if applicable (e.g. scientist without an independent faculty position): 1 page including characteristics of the trainee suggesting a positive trajectory in endometriosis/adenomyosis investigation, plus resources and mentorship to be provided to ensure successful completion of proposed aims
  7. NIH Biosketch: NIH biosketch fellowship for applicants (and NIH biosketch non- fellowship for supervisor, if applicable). Max 5 pages. See: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory/biosketch
  8. Appendices: References, other letters of support, budget (1 page)
  9. Nominate up to 3 reviewers with expertise in the area (but in different institution than applicant); if required, the committee may also recommend a WES senior ambassador as a reviewer

Peer review process

Due date: September 19, 2025

Peer review (wholly anonymized) will be sent back to applicant by October 17, 2025, with opportunity for rebuttal letter (but not required to re-submit proposal) due November 14, 2025.

Decision notification: December 19, 2025

Assessment criteria

  • Importance of the problem
  • Methods/Approach
  • Knowledge dissemination and/or future research plan
  • Impact of receiving the award on the applicant’s career

Reporting

  • Present at WCE2027 (oral) at early-career session
  • End-of-grant written report (e.g. to go on the WES website) which includes a lay summary and infographic of key findings
  • Consent to highlight award recipient on WES website and in WES social media and at WCE2027 and in future years of WES Early Career investigator awards marketing
  • Required acknowledgment of funding from WES Early Career investigator award in any presentations or publications arising from the funded aims

Submission

Please submit applications (titled: WES grant application or WES grant application rebuttal) as a single PDF to worldendometriosissociety@wsm.com.au