Applications are open for the British Psychological Society's Public Engagement Grants 2010.
The Society has £14k to award to its members working on projects that help people or contribute to everyday life, and raise awareness of psychology and psychology research. This is the seventh year of the scheme.
Past successful awards include £5k in 2008 to Dr Sarah Davidson who works with the British Red Cross to promote the CALMER psycho-social framework. That project trained Red Cross volunteers, school teachers and trainers in emotional support skills to enable them to ease psychological trauma as they help people who have experienced crises. The scheme has already proved invaluable during incidents like the Haitian earthquake and the floods in
Dr. Graham Powell, Chair of the Public Engagement Grant Selection Panel said: "I'm chuffed to bits that through these awards we've been able to support our members to get good evidence-based psychology into the public arena. There are some really great ideas about practical applications of the science that bring real benefits to people".
An award of £1.6k in 2009 went to Kathryn Rathouse in collaboration with Waterwise, to hold a masterclass on changing water using behaviour for water companies to demonstrate that psychological-based guidance can help promote more water efficient behaviour.
Other successful awards in 2009 went to Sally Hodges, working with Camden PCT online mental health resource for primary school-aged children, and to Ann Rowland for her work with the Child Bereavement Charity to support bereaved young people and create resources for parents and teachers for the Charities website.
The grant scheme is open to all members of the British Psychological Society. The closing date for completed grant applications is Friday 2nd July 2010.
Full details of the public engagement grants are available at http://www.bps.org.uk/grants
Source
British Psychological Society