The ISSTD Research and Education Grant is a new funding initiative providing up to $10,000 USD to support innovative research aligned with ISSTD’s mission.
To qualify, research must focus on complex trauma and dissociation, with trauma-related pathological dissociation as the central theme. Studies that address only complex trauma without this focus will not be considered. The grant supports a wide range of research methodologies, including neurobiological and physiological studies, survey-based research, clinical trials, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and secondary data analysis.
This grant is not designed to fully fund large-scale human subject studies but can serve as supplemental funding for ongoing projects or pilot studies to generate preliminary data for larger grant applications.
The grant committee, co-chaired by Drs. Lauren Lebois and Milissa Kaufman, has developed guidelines to align this funding opportunity with major research foundations and U.S. government grant standards. Following Board approval, the first formal call for proposals was launched in September 2024, yielding eight applications. After initial screening, six advanced to full review by members of the ISSTD Scientific Committee.
The highest-scoring applicant was Dr. Caitlin Ridgewell, a postdoctoral fellow at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Her research will examine “Progesterone Metabolism, Symptom Severity, and Executive Function in Trauma-Related Disorders.”