ISSBD Grants

Overview

The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD) invites applications for travel grants and participation in pre-conference workshops for Early Career Scholars at the ISSBD 2026 Biennial Meeting in Incheon, South Korea.

Eligibility

Early Career Scholars, participants who have received a graduate research degree (e.g., PhD) within the past seven years (late 2018 or later) or who are currently in a graduate program leading to such a degree, may be eligible to apply for travel grants to join the pre-conference workshops and attend the conference. See below for additional information. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Julie Bowker (juliebowker5@gmail.com). 

Pre-conference Workshops for Early Career Scholars

The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development is planning several pre-conference workshops specially for early career scholars – participants, who received a graduate research degree (e.g., PhD) within the past seven years or who are in a graduate program leading to such a degree – to be held in Incheon on June 21, 2026, the day before the main ISSBD 2026 sessions start. ISSBD anticipates providing travel support for a number of qualified early-career scholars to attend one of these pre-conference workshops and the ISSBD 2026 conference. Applications from early-career scholars from any country are welcome.

Please note:

• Travel grants will only be awarded to early-career scholars who apply for and attend one of the pre-conference workshops and who have at least one abstract accepted for the 2026 Biennial Meeting.

• This is a new competition — all early-career scholars need to apply to be eligible for travel grants and pre-conference workshops for the 2026 meeting.

Specific Workshops

Six full-day pre-conference workshops will be offered. More details will be made available soon, but the topics of the workshops will be:

1. Publishing

2. Communicating within Communities: Capacity Building to Communicate Science that Cares

3. Open Developmental Science

4. Dyadic and Network Approaches to the Study of Peer Relationships

5. The Promise: Preparing Young People and Their Families for the Challenge of a Warming World

6. Methods in Developmental Science

For additional information about the preconference workshops and their leaders, see here. 

Procedure for Application

Interested Early Career Scholars should apply for the pre-conference workshops and request travel funding support via the application form available on the ISSBD membership website.
Please note that you must be logged in to the membership site to access and complete the form.

In addition to the completed application form (which is completed online this year), the following are required:

1. One of your abstracts submitted for the 2026 ISSBD Biennial Meeting

2. A 2-page curriculum vitae

3. A reference letter from a senior scientist familiar with your research work (preferably an ISSBD member; no more than 2 pages)

Please note:

• Your reference letter and journal publications may be verified.

• Curriculum vitae longer than 2 pages will not be considered.

• It is also fine for the senior scientist to send their letter directly to k.castillo@issbd.org. The submission deadline also applies to emailed recommendation letters. Late emails will not be accepted, and applications without the letter will be considered incomplete.

• If possible, please submit the three required items as a single PDF. If this is not possible, please try to submit the application and the three required items as a single MS Word document.

• Ensure that the name of the document(s) you submit includes your surname as the first word of its filename.

• Applications for a travel grant will only be considered from individuals whose academic contribution to the ISSBD 2026 conference in Incheon (poster, poster workshop, or symposium) has been accepted for presentation.

• Only those ECS applicants with current paid ISSBD memberships are eligible. Applicants who need to renew or activate their ISSBD membership can do so via the membership portal. 

• Decisions about funding will be made after decisions about acceptances to the Biennial Meeting have been announced.

• Incomplete and late applications will not be accepted.

Deadline for Application

December 1, 2025

Decision Time-frame

Funding decisions will be made in as timely a way as possible, but after decisions about the Biennial Meeting have been made.
All funding decisions will be communicated via email around February/March 2026.

Learn More About ISSBD 2026
Details about the conference schedule, accommodation, and local arrangements are available on the conference website.

About:

The 2 x 2 Grant for Early Career Scholars (i.e., doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows who have completed their doctoral degree within the past 7 years) reflects ISSBD’s commitment to supporting early-career developmental scholars of all backgrounds worldwide. 

The “2 x 2” element means that two early-career scholars, located in two different countries or regions (ideally, different continents, with one applicant from a majority-world/under-represented country), must apply together. Preferably, the co-applicants should also study different topics/disciplines and show complementary research and/or methodological skills.

Award: Up to US$5,000 for 1 year (non-renewable). Recipients will also receive travel stipends to attend the 28th ISSBD Biennial Meeting in 2026.

Number of awards: A maximum of 2 grants will be awarded.

Eligibility: Each pair of applicants must be: 

• ISSBD early career scholars located in different countries or regions (ideally different continents and ideally at least one applicant from a majority-world/under-represented country)
• Active current doctoral or postdoctoral students at a college or university, or within 7 years of being awarded a doctoral degree (time out for caring responsibilities or other commitments is considered)
• Have a mentor available. 
• Proposed projects can cover any research study related to a science that cares about a better understanding and/or promotion of human development and flourishing across the lifespan; given the short period of the grant, proposals for original research, secondary data analysis, and meta-analytic reviews are welcome
• The importance of the proposed project to developmental science needs to be explicitly stated and clear (e.g., by the use of developmental theory to inform the study and interpret results)
• Be an ISSBD member or register on the Membership Site before applying.

Advantageous Criteria (Preferred but not required)

• Past collaboration between the applicants.

• A cross-cultural element with a clear rationale for how incorporating diversity and/or data from two cultures, regions, or perspectives will enhance the research goals.

Evaluation Criteria: All projects will be evaluated based on:

• Relevance to the 2 x 2 goal of promoting an international developmental science that cares by bringing early career scholars from different countries and perspectives together, creating a unique result that could not be achieved by either perspective alone
• Potential for impact of funds on applicants’ professional development
• Scientific merit
• Evidence that the two early career schools have complementary research and methodological skills/ have access to complementary research and methodological expertise

Timeline

• Application deadline: October 3, 2025.
• Review period: October 2025.
• Decision notifications: November 2025.

 

Questions

For questions about the nature of the grants, please reach out to:

– Dr. Tina Malti: tina.malti@utoronto.ca

For issues about the application process, please contact: 

– Dr. Karen Castillo: k.castillo@issbd.org 

About

ISSBD is pleased to announce the results of its CARE EVERYWHERE grant, titled “Understanding and Nourishing the Development of Character Strengths Globally.“ Supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, this grant targets research conducted by ISSBD members that aims to understand and nurture character strengths across the lifespan, contributing to a better understanding of what is common and what is specific in caring across the world.

Results

The two awarded projects are:

Socio-Cultural Pathways to Kindness Cultivation Among Thai Adolescents in the Context of Parental Migration.
Yao Fu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Xu Jiang, Temple University, USA

Lebanese Adolescents’ Kindness Orientations toward Internally Displaced People: A Post-war Examination of the Role of Parent and Child Traits, Values, and Attitudes.
Aline Hitti, University of San Francisco, USA
Mona Ayoub, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

More details about the awarded projects and scholars will be shared soon.

We extend our sincere thanks to all applicants for their proposals and congratulate the grant recipients on this outstanding achievement.