Welcome to the APTA Academy of Education Submission Portal for annual awards nominations and research grant applications.  All applications for awards and research grants will be submitted and reviewed through this portal.  

**An account is required in order to submit.  If you participated last year and have an existing account, you may login to the left or above.  To create an account, select LOGIN OR CREATE ACCOUNT above. 

• Your UN and password do not need to match your Academy of Education login.
• Having an account will allow you to save your draft submission and return to complete and submit at a later time. Please note: draft submissions must be submitted in order to be considered.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EACH AWARD OR GRANT, please select the AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS and RESEARCH GRANTS tabs in the green area above for dropdown menus. 

If you're ready to submit, select "Start Application" below to login or create an account and begin a submission. 

• You may save an application and return to edit.  You have until the deadline to finalize and submit the application.
• Once you save and finalize, you will no longer be able to edit the application.

AWARDS:  The awards are overseen by the Awards Committee and presented each year during the annual meeting of the Academy of Education at CSM. 

• Adopt-A-Doc Scholarship: seeks to increase the number of doctorally prepared PTs and PTAs by providing financial support to Academy members who are in the dissertation phase of their post-professional doctoral programs.
• Award for Leadership in Education: recognizes a nationally prominent educator who has exhibited outstanding leadership and contributions to physical therapy education.
• Polly Cerasoli Lectureship Award: acknowledges an individual who has distinguished himself/herself as an educator, administrator, practitioner and/or mentor as exemplified in the professional career of Pauline "Polly" Cerasoli, PT, EdD.
• Distinguished Educator in Physical Therapist Education Award: recognizes excellence in academic or clinical teaching in a physical therapy education program.
• Distinguished Educator in Physical Therapist Assistant Education Award: recognizes excellence in academic or clinical teaching in a physical therapist assistant program.
• Distinguished Mentor in Residency/Fellowship Education Award: recognizes excellence in Residency/Fellowship mentoring
• Education Professional Service Award: a high honor recognizing significant service to the APTA Academy of Education.
• Outstanding Clinical Instructor Award: recognizes an outstanding clinical instructor who demonstrates exceptional skills in teaching, communication, interpersonal relationships, professional competence, mentoring, modeling, and professionalism. 
• Outstanding Site Coordinator for Clinical Education Award: recognizes an outstanding Site Coordinator for Clinical Education (SCCE) who consistently demonstrate exceptional skills in the supervision and education of Clinical Instructors through mentoring as well as serving as a role model for Clinical Education. 
• President's Award: honors an individual who has provided exemplary service or noteworthy contributions in advancing the vision, mission or goals of the APTA Academy of Education.

GRANTS:   Research grants are available to assist APTA Academy of Education members in conducting research that investigates a question of importance to the advancement of education in physical therapy. In addition to research related to physical therapy education (DPT, PTA), questions related to the education of patients/clients, licensed PTs/PTAs or PT/PTA students will also be considered.

• Research Grant: These grants continue to provide proposers potential financial resources of up to $25,000 for larger projects with a with an experienced research team.  Proposals for the larger grants continue to require that the proposal demonstrate that the project can be completed within one year and that the research team has the requisite experience and expertise to achieve success.
• Small Seed Grant: These small grants (new in 2024) are intended to support the work of new and aspiring scholars pursuing financial resources of up to $10,000 to support smaller or pilot projects.  These small grants can also be used to provide financial resources for planned larger projects that need to gather pilot data.  In either case, grant applicants need to demonstrate how the project is investigating a question of importance to the advancement of education in physical therapy and situate the proposal within a larger research objective.