Virtual Competition Information
Welcome to the UIC SPH Research and Scholarship Week Virtual Competition!
While in the past we hosted this event in person, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will occur virtually this year. We look forward to gathering virtually with students, faculty, alumni, and community partners to celebrate the efforts of students across multiple disciplines and backgrounds at UIC.
Virtual Competition Rules:
- Students should indicate interest in participating in the virtual poster competition by completing a Letter of Intent (LOI) form by April 5, 2021 at 12 p.m. (Please note: only one LOI is required per poster submission)
- Once students complete an LOI, they are welcome to begin submitting their posters and abstracts online up through this poster and abstract submission form until the deadline closes at close of business on April 12, 2021.
- Students may enter any of the following confirmed competitions listed below under “Main Competitions.”
- A link to all posters entered in the competition will be published on the SPH website. Presenters should plan to monitor their posters and respond to questions from judges from April 19 to April 23. Judges will be limited to a set number of questions per
- Poster awards are expected to be announced by email and on the website on May 5th, 2021.
- Please feel free to contact us prior to the deadline if you encounter problems with the form or have other questions.
We look forward to your participation in a virtual space.
Learn about the competitions
About the competition
- Public Health Research: research carried out in Schools of Public Health often primarily contributes to the general knowledge about a public health issue or concern. This knowledge then helps inform future efforts to address these issues or concerns.
- Scholarly Public Health Practice: the primary aim in scholarly public health practice is to directly help solve a public health problem as a collaborator or intervener.
Guidance for selecting a competition track: There is not always a clear distinction between scholarly public health practice and research. Both are scholarly and rigorous (for example, methods for collecting and analyzing data or other information are described in detail, conclusions are based on evidence and appropriately qualified, etc.). To reiterate, scholarly public health practice usually will involve a primary focus on addressing a specific public health problem or practical need that has been identified as important by a particular partner organization or group in the community, whereas research will tend to involve a focus on contributing to general knowledge about a public health issue (e.g., hypothesis testing).
Awards will be given to the each of the top posters in the Undergraduate Scholarly Public Health Practice, Undergraduate Public Health Research, Master’s Scholarly Public Health Practice, Master’s Public Health Research, Doctoral Scholarly Public Health Practice, and Doctoral Public Health Research categories. Each of the Master’s and Doctoral competitions will also have an honorable mention.
About the competitions
- Global Health Competition Award: sponsored by the Global Health Program at the UIC School of Public Health, $300 will be awarded to one master’s student and one doctoral student who presents the highest scoring poster on a global health topic. Open to SPH Master’s or Doctoral level students.
- Maternal and Child Health Competition Award: sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Program, $250 will be awarded to one student who presents the highest scoring poster on a maternal and child health topic. Open to students enrolled in the SPH Maternal and Child Health program (MCHP) or the SPH Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology program.
- CCTS Translational Science Award: sponsored by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), $200 awarded for the highest scoring poster on a translational science topic. Open to SPH Master’s and Doctoral level students whose projects are relevant to the translation of clinical or observational studies into everyday clinical practice and health decision making. This may include, but is not limited to community engagement, health research dissemination, health disparities among special populations (age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.), and research implementation. Learn more about the translational science spectrum.
- DrPH Practice Based Research Award: sponsored by the DrPH program, this $500 award is given to one doctoral student from any SPH program whose research project best meets the practice-based research criteria established by the DrPH Program. Open to all currently enrolled doctoral students
Criteria for these competitions
- Practice relevance: research project addresses a real-world practice problem(s) of a specific organization(s)
- Engagement: research project is endorsed by practitioners with direct experience of the problem being addressed, ideally from the organization study site and who directly participate in the study.
- Systems and organizational focus: practice problem has clear public health systems and/or organizational performance aspects.
- Multiple Method Design: research project has an explicit study design that employs the use of a variety of methods and multiple data sources.
- Conceptual Framework: project develops and operationalizes a conceptual framework which is explicitly informed by practice experience, environmental scanning and scholarly literature.
- Generalizability/Transferability: project generates knowledge which has clear relevance for application beyond the local study setting.
- Leadership: Leadership aspects (the researcher’s or site’s) are explicitly considered.
- Community Engaged Research Award: sponsored by the Collaboratory for Health Justice (CHJ), these $250 awards are to be given to one master’s level and one doctoral level student in the School of Public Health. This award acknowledges notable research conducted in collaboration with community members to advance the priorities of a community group or community-based organization. Open to all masters or doctoral students in the School of Public Health
Criteria for the Community Engagement Research Award
Must be notable in at least one of the following ways:
- Assets of the community are leveraged and / or enhanced by the research.
- Community members are a crucial part of the research team or process (i.e., uses CBPR or PAR methods).
- Research was designed or applied in order to change institutional or local policy or systems to address communities’ identified needs.
About the awards
| Competition | Categories | Number of Awards | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Health Research | Top poster: Undergraduate, Master s, Doctoral | 3 | $300 |
| Honorable Mention: Master s, Doctoral | 2 | $150 | |
| Scholarly Public Health Practice | Top poster: Undergraduate, Master s, Doctoral | 3 | $300 |
| Honorable Mention: Master s, Doctoral | 2 | $150 | |
| Global Health Award | Masters, Doctoral | 2 | $300 |
| Maternal and Child Health Award | 1 | $250 | |
| CCTS Translational Science Award | 1 | $200 | |
| DrPH Practice-Based Research | 1 | $500 | |
| Community Engaged Research Award | Masters, Doctoral | 2 | $250 |