The ISDH presents three awards in 2025
- Annual Special Care Dental Care Professional (DCP) Award
- Student/ Newly Qualified Professional Award
- June Nunn Award
1 – ISDH Dental Health Foundation
Annual Special Care Dental Care Professional (DCP) Award
The Society will award €350 to the best essay, case-report or completed project on any aspect of Special Care Dentistry by a
dental nurse, hygienist, oral health promoter or other non-dental healthcare professional. This award is funded by the Dental Health Foundation.
Criteria
- This award is restricted to dental care professionals and non-dental healthcare professionals’ resident on the island of Ireland.
- A team, working together on a project, may enter.
- Maximum word-count for submissions is 2000 words excluding references and abstract.
- It is a requirement that the work would not have been presented elsewhere nor been awarded an award previously
Submitting your entry
Applicants must submit a blinded electronic copy of their entry with a separate cover letter by e-mail to the Bursary co-ordinator (details below) by 2nd May 2025.
Receipt of your entry will be by email to the submitting author.
Important dates
24th March 2025 | Call open |
2nd May 2025 | Closing date |
16th May 2025 | Confirmation of award |
6th June 2025 | Presentation at Conference |
Examples of suitable entries
Examples of the type of entry that are likely to be successful are: original review articles, oral health promotion projects, innovations in the way services are delivered, novel ways to provide dental care for people with disabilities, interdisciplinary working with parent/carer support groups. Please read “Guidance for Authors” for additional information.
Judging
The panel of judges will consist of the ISDH Academic Advisor, President and an invited academic. The decision of the panel of judges is final and will be communicated by the confirmed date. The award winners will be announced at the ISDH Annual Conference.
Award
The award will be made at the ISDH conference. Award winners will be invited to give a short oral or poster presentation of their successful entries at the Summer Conference.
All entrants may be invited to display posters of their entries at the exhibition during the ISDH conference on the 6th of June 2025.
Please note the Society does not undertake to pay the expenses of the Author(s) to attend the ISDH conference.
ISDH Bursary Contact:
Dr Gillian Smith
gilliansmithdental@gmail.com
2 – ISDH Dental Health Foundation
Student/ Newly Qualified Professional Award
The society will award €300 to the best essay, case-report or completed project on any aspect of Special Care Dentistry by an undergraduate student or a newly qualified dental professional in the island of Ireland. This award is funded by the Dental Health Foundation.
Criteria:
- This award is restricted to undergraduate students or newly qualified dental professionals (first year post-qualification) resident on the island of Ireland.
- Maximum word-count for submissions is 2000 words excluding references and abstract.
- It is a requirement that the submitted piece would not have been presented elsewhere nor been awarded an award previously.
Submitting your entry
Applicants must submit a blinded electronic copy of their entry with a separate cover letter by e-mail to the Bursary coordinator (details below) by 2nd May 2025.
Receipt of your entry will be by email to the submitting author.
Important dates
24th March 2025 | Call open |
2nd May 2025 | Closing date |
16th May 2025 | Confirmation of award |
6th June 2025 | Presentation at Conference |
Examples of suitable entries
Examples of the type of entry that are likely to be successful are: original review articles, oral health promotion projects, innovations in the way services are delivered, novel ways to provide dental care for people with disabilities, interdisciplinary working with parent/carer support groups. Please read “Guidance for Authors” for additional information.
Judging
The panel of judges will consist of the ISDH Academic Advisor, President and an invited academic. The decision of the panel of judges is final and will be communicated by the confirmed date. The award winners will be announced at the ISDH Annual Conference.
Award
The award will be awarded at the conference. Award winners will be invited to give a short oral or poster presentation of their successful entries at the Summer Conference.
All entrants may be invited to display posters of their entries at the exhibition during the ISDH conference on the 6th of June 2025.
Please note the Society does not undertake to pay the expenses of the Author (s).
ISDH Bursary Contact:
Dr Gillian Smith
gilliansmithdental@gmail.com
Guidance for Authors
Title of the project
Title should be concise, appealing and descriptive.
Abstract
Structured summary, no more than 150 words. Background, Methods, Results and Discussion.
Introduction
Should be brief and include:
- Explanation of the background to the project/study/case/review
- The relevance of the project/study/case/review
- Clear description of aims and objectives
Literature review
Where relevant, authors should consider the following:
- Authors should include relevant literature where suitable
- References, where used, should be relevant and contemporaneous
- Where a project consists completely of a literature review, conventional reporting styles of the type of literature review are recommended.
Methods
Where relevant, authors should consider the following:
- Choice of design for project/study/case/review is adequately justified and should be appropriate to the overall question/problem
- Methods should be adequately described so as a reader can understand what was done, why, how data were collected and analysed.
Results
- Results of any analysis should be presented clearly and concisely.
- Tables and Figures are welcome.
- Statistical analyses are welcome.
- Creativity is encouraged.
Discussion and conclusions
Where relevant, authors should consider the following:
- The discussion should include a brief summary of the major findings
- These findings should be considered relative to the existing literature
- The strengths and weaknesses of the project/study/case/review should be considered
- Implications for practice should be considered
- Conclusion should focus on your findings.
Presentation format:
Separate cover letter
The separate cover letter must clearly indicate which competition is being entered. Email address for all authors, including a full email address and phone number of the lead author, and the title of the project/study/case/review must be included in the covering letter. Authors’ details must not appear in the report.
Submission:
The submission should be typed, double spaced, justified, and leaving standard margins. Pages should be numbered.
Page 1 should give:
- Page 1 should include the title of the report, without the author’s name and an abstract up to a maximum of 150 words.
- There is no limit on the number of graphs, tables, photographs or radiographs that may be included.
- Photographs and radiographs should be of a high quality
- No identifiable details should be shared without express consent in compliance with GDPR.
- Consent for publication is needed for any patient photograph and no patient’s names should appear in the text.
- Acknowledgements should appear at the end of the text, before the reference section.
- References should be in the Vancouver style and checked carefully by the author. They must be cited in the text in numerical order of appearance and appear in numerical order at the end of the report.
- Appendices are not encouraged, but will be accepted where necessary.
3 – ISDH and DeCare Dental
June Nunn Service Innovation Award
The ISDH is proud to announce the June Nunn Award. The June Nunn Award, sponsored by DeCare Dental, will be awarded for a Service Innovation or Development in the area of Special Care Dentistry.
Who can enter?
This award is open to all i.e. members and non-members of ISDH, dentist, dental nurse, hygienist, oral health promoter or other non-dental healthcare professional working in the HSE or general/ specialist/ hospital practice in Ireland.
What do I have to do?
Tell us in under 500 words how your brainwave improved oral care for people with disabilities in Ireland. Back it up with photos, copies of documents, testimonials. Examples of the type of entry that may be successful are innovations in the way services are delivered, novel ways to provide dental care for people with disabilities, interdisciplinary working with parent/carer support groups.
It is a requirement that the submitted piece would not have been presented elsewhere nor been awarded an award previously.
Send your blinded entry by e-mail to the Bursary co-ordinator by the deadline given. The email must clearly indicate which competition is being entered. Authors’ details must not appear in the email attachment.
Applicants must submit a blinded electronic copy of their entry with a separate cover letter by e-mail to the Bursary co-ordinator (details below) by 2nd May 2025. The separate cover letter must clearly indicate which competition is being entered. Email addresses for all authors, including a full email address and phone number of the lead author, and the title must be included in the covering letter. Authors’ details must not appear in the report.
Receipt of your entry will be by email to the submitting author.
The decision of the panel of judges is final and will be communicated by the specified date. The award of €500 will be awarded at the ISDH Annual Conference.
The winner will be invited to give a short oral presentation of their successful entry at the Summer Conference.
All entrants may be invited to display posters of their entries at the exhibition during the ISDH conference on the 6th of June 2025.
Please note the Society does not undertake to pay the expenses of the author(s).
ISDH Bursary Contact:
Dr Gillian Smith
gilliansmithdental@gmail.com
Important dates
24th March 2025 | Call open |
2nd May 2025 | Closing date |
16th May 2025 | Confirmation of award |
6th June 2025 | Presentation at Conference |