SOPT Funding and Awards

The Anne E. Dyson Child Advocacy Award is supported by the Dyson Foundation and celebrates the outstanding efforts of residents as they work in their communities to improve the health of children. This award seeks to showcase projects that are designed and implemented by residents with the aim to improve the lives of children. We hope that rewarding exemplary resident-driven efforts will promote increased advocacy efforts by residents in the future and provide an opportunity for residents to help each other to plan future advocacy programs. 

Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) Resident Grants  support pediatric residents in the planning and/or implementation of community-based child health initiatives. Grants of up to $2,000 are awarded annually on a competitive basis for pediatric residents to address the needs of the underserved children in their communities. Applications are available November 1 and the deadline for submission is January 15.

To ensure project completion, residents who are in their 1st or 2nd year of residency on the application submission due date are eligible to apply; 3rd-year residents may apply as co-applicants, or as primary applicants if they will be chief resident in their 4th year. Also eligible: PL-3 or below in medicine-pediatrics residency and PL-4 or below in triple-board residency. Fellowship trainees are eligible for up to $10,000 and must elect to apply for either a Planning Grant or an Implementation Grant.

Other resources: Community Pediatrics Funded Projects

The SOPT has held an annual "Clinical Case Competition" since 2003. Fellowship Trainees, residents, and medical students can submit abstracts of interesting cases they have come across in their training through the Academy's online abstract submission process. The abstracts are judged by a committee of pediatric trainee leaders, and the top fifty (50) authors are invited to present their case in poster format at the National Conference and Exhibition. The first-place medical student, resident, and fellowship trainee winners are determined prior to the conference by the Editor-in-Chief of Pediatrics in Review (PIR) based on the abstracts alone. The Editor-in-Chief announces the winners at the SOPT program and following the peer-review process, will publish the cases in PIR as an Index of Suspicion article the following September.

Each academic year the AAP will designate several $1000 awards split in two cycles (number awarded per cycle will be at the discretion of the review committee). These awards will be given to residents and fellowship trainees who wish to complete a clinical pediatric elective in the developing world during training. Applicants must be a member of the AAP Section on International Child Health (SOICH). For more information about SOICH, please click here. If you are not currently a member of SOICH, please go to the ShopAAP Membership page to join the Section.

The AAP Advocacy Conference takes place annually in Washington, DC. During the conference, participants will learn how to become effective child health advocates through interactive workshops and in-depth training sessions, while networking with pediatricians and trainees from across the country.

To enhance the development of research skills among physicians in training, the AAP administers the Resident Research Grant (RRG) Program. This program is designed to give pediatric residents with limited research experience an opportunity to initiate and complete research projects related to their professional interests. Grants of $2000 are available. Applicants must be pediatric residents in a training program (categorical or combined) AND have a definite commitment for another year of residency or chief residency (not fellowship) in a pediatric program accredited by the Residency Review Committee. Canadian citizens are eligible to apply. Previous RRG recipients are ineligible to apply. 

The Program Delegate Award is available to residents who serve as National Program Delegates (NPD) to the AAP. This award supports the NPD's travel to the Section on Pediatric Trainees (SOPT) meeting at the annual AAP National Conference and Exhibition.

As part of the SOPT's commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, the section offers grants to trainees to support and prioritize research, intervention, and education within communities and institutions addressing health disparities, health inequities, lack of diversity in medicine, and/or the climate crisis/environmental justice.

More information on the selected grantees and their projects will be coming soon. The application for the next round of grants will open in November. 

The SOPT Health Equity Grant Program is supported by ByHeart.

The SOPT Health Equity Grant Program began in 2022 as the SOPT CHANGE Grant Program. Thank you to the 2021-2022 SOPT Advocacy Campaign Tri-Chairs, Aaron Briggs, MD; Caroline Hogan, MD; and Srilaxmi Kishor, MD, for their work in establishing these grants.