Special Olympics Health Professions Student Grants Special Olympics is pleased to offer a grant opportunity for health professions students. The purpose of this program is to engage health professions students to work with persons with intellectual disabilities as a way of filling in a gap that exists in most health program curricula. The program promotes short-term projects exploring issues that impact the health and well-being of all persons with intellectual disabilities, including, but not limited to, Special Olympics athletes. This concern is described in the Special Olympics publication, Promoting the Health for Individuals with Mental Retardation — A Critical Journey Barely Begun. Download a Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Health Professions Student Grant application template (Microsoft Word document, 146K) and return it to Special Olympics. Projects may include: data collection and analysis on issues impacting persons with intellectual disabilities measurement of attitudes, opinions and behaviors of health professionals, coaches, family/caregivers and athletes follow-up assessments of existing programs; or health promotion projects. Projects that involve collaborations with Special Olympics Programs or other CDC grant recipients (e.g., state and local health departments) are encouraged. Samples of recently funded projects are available. Special Olympics is not currently prioritizing specific research areas for funding, as the program’s primary goal is to engage health professions students to work with the population of persons with intellectual disabilities. Eligibility: Health professions students at the Bachelor, Master, Doctorate and Post-Doctorate levels from accredited institutions or programs in the United States or other countries. Fields or disciplines may include, audiology, dentistry, pre-med, medicine, nursing, optometry, physical therapy, podiatry, public health, social work, law, public administration or other related health areas. All students’ projects will require a faculty advisor. Applicants who are intending to work with a Special Olympics Program or use data that has been gathered by a Special Olympics Program should contact a Program representative prior to submitting the grant proposal and should submit with the application a letter of support from the Program for the project. Funding: A project may be funded up to US$3,500 per year. All awards will be made to the institution on behalf of the student grantee. Funding must include all expenses and no indirect costs may be covered by this grant. Criteria For Funding: Applications for student grants are accepted year-round. A research committee of Special Olympics, made up of professional staff, Global Medical Advisory Committee representative, and Global Clinical Advisors, will review project submissions and applicants will receive a response within 30 days of receipt of the application. The format for application will follow the protocol on this downloadable application template (Microsoft Word document, 146K). Special Olympics data and research findings (or other published data) may be used to inform project design. Projects will be measured on quality, potential for future expansion, significance and impact on Special Olympics Programs, and will be subject to all necessary IRB approval. After completion of awarded projects, a final report summarizing results will be due to Darcie Mersereau no later than 30 days from the project completion date (as per the timeline). The funds supporting these grants are from the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes federal project grant # U59/CCU 321826 through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Completed applications should be returned to: Darcie Mersereau, MPH Manager, Research and Evaluation Special Olympics, Inc. 1133 19th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. USA 20036-3604 +1 (202) 715-3600 +1 (202) 824-0200 (Fax) Applications may be submitted electronically to: 2006hastudentgrant@specialolympics.org.