Award Amount: $1,000 USD
Application Deadline: June 1st, 2026 (11:59pm EST)

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​About the Award

The Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection (GILC) is pleased to invite nominations for the inaugural Early Career SILC (Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Connection) Researcher Award. This award will recognize a promising early-career researcher whose work is advancing understanding or solutions related to social isolation, loneliness, and/or connection (SILC) across policy, research, or practice domains.

GILC’s purpose is to advance and champion global approaches to addressing SILC. We particularly encourage nominations of researchers working in or focused on Global South contexts.

Eligibility

Individuals are welcome to nominate themselves or another researcher for consideration. Any applicant or nominee should:

• Be an early-career researcher (either currently enrolled in an accredited PhD program or no more than five years post-graduation from their PhD).

• Be able to demonstrate their contributions to SILC-related work (focusing on either research, policy, practice, or knowledge translation). Mention any applicable details about publications, research impact, field weighted citation index (FWCI), H index, or end-user engagement in research.

• Be affiliated with an academic, research, policy, nonprofit, or applied practice organization.

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The deadline to be considered for this award is June 1st, 2026 at 11:59pm EST.
 

Nomination Process
Each nomination must include:

• A primary academic nominator (or self-nomination)

• Completion of a brief nomination form (below)
   

Nominators will be asked to respond to the following questions (150 words max each):

1. What is your relationship to the nominee? (if applicable)

2. How is the nominee’s research addressing SILC?

3. Has the nominee made any other key contributions to SILC (research, policy, practice, or knowledge translation) outside this research?

4. How does the nominee demonstrate originality, independence, or leadership in their work?

5. Any additional information supporting this nomination that you’d like to share:

 

Evaluation Criteria
Nominations will be evaluated based on:

• The research’s demonstrated contribution to the furthering of SILC research, policy, or practice

• Innovation and originality

• Potential for real-world impact

• Demonstrated potential for future impact in the SILC space

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Award and Presentation OpportunityThe awardee will receive $1,000 USD to support their ongoing research activities. As part of the award:

• The recipient will be invited to present their work in a GILC-hosted webinar in early 2027.

• The recipient will be featured in GILC communications and global network activities.

• The recipient is welcome to join GILC as a GILC Collaborator and take part in GILC programming.

• The recipient is invited to join our virtual event where the award will be announced on June 17th / 18th (details here).

 

Commitment to Global Inclusion
GILC strongly encourages nominations from individuals working in low- and middle-income countries or whose work focuses on Global South populations, contexts, or solutions.
 

Questions
For inquiries, please contact: madhura@gilc.global and edward@gilc.global.