THE MARGARET S. MAHLER CHILD DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION GRANT AWARD

This grant is intended to encourage research in early development that has relevance to the clinical and theoretical work of Margaret S. Mahler by providing support for start-up research. Our interest is in areas of inquiry that will further understanding about the psychological life and early development of young children.

FUNDING

No more than $5000.00 may be requested for any single year.

APPLICATION DUE DATES

April 30, 2014

November 30, 2014

GUIDELINES FOR GRANT APPLICATION PROCEDURES

This document details the Funding Guidelines and Application Procedures for Investigator-Initiated Research Grants. Investigator-Initiated Research Grants usually range between ____________ and ____________ and are viewed as start up grants with the purpose of helping the investigator obtain further funding for that study.

GENERAL CRITERIA FOR FUNDING

• The research questions posed should be a strong fit with the Foundation's interests. Our interests focus on issues related to parent-child relationships, child development, and developmental theories including psychoanalytic and attachment theory.
• The application should reflect a mastery of related theory and empirical findings, and build upon this other work.
• The study design, methods, and analysis plan should clearly fit the research questions.
• The sample should be appropriate in size and composition to address the study’s questions.
• The measurement plan should reflect methodological rigor and the analysis plan should reflect sufficient sophistication for addressing the study's questions.
• The application should state the feasibility of the project – that the work can be successfully completed given the resources and timeframe.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Project Information, including

• Project title
• Start and stop dates of the project
• Principle investigator, name, most advanced degree and discipline, address and contact information. Include a brief curriculum vitae (Max. 2 pages).

Budget (direct and indirect costs)

Proposals should contain the following information preferably written in narrative style of approximately 4-8 single spaced pages.

• Major questions guiding this proposal
• Rationale, including how the project is relevant to the Foundation’s interests
• Literature review and preliminary studies briefly describing - how the project intends to add to theory or practice, how it extends and compliments prior research efforts.
• Specific hypotheses and research questions.
• Research methods, including a description of the sample, research design, measures-data sources, data collection procedures
• Data analysis plan, including how the data will be analyzed to address each of the study’s main research questions or hypotheses.
• Bibliography

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A statement of intention for IRB approval is necessary for all projects using human participants.

Proposals are accepted for consideration at our Board Meeting in June 2014 and January 2015.