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Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry prizes and bursaries
Background
Dr Neville Gittleson was an esteemed psychiatrist, who worked in Sheffield, promoted Forensic Psychiatry, taught medical students, conducted and supported research and promoted medical education across disciplinary groups. He joined the Parole Board in 1978, then became a member of the Home Office and Parole Board Life Sentence Committee. He became a member of the Criminal Law Revision Committee’s policy group that published several green papers on sexual offences. He also worked for the Mental Health Act Commission and Mental Health Review Tribunal and ran a drop-in clinic for people who were homeless. His son, David, has endowed this prize in his father’s memory.
Prize (annual)
£500.00 and a certificate for up to two winners.
The Prizes will be presented at the Annual Faculty Conference. It is hoped that the winners will be able to attend in person. The Faculty will waive the conference fee for that day in order to support this.
Who can enter
Medical students or foundation doctors based at UK medical schools at the time of entry.
Rules
Please email us your application based on the information below.
- The application must be in two parts:
- Part 1: A personal page in which you provide your name, post description, work address, phone number and a preferred email address. You should provide the name and affiliations of your research supervisor. If your application relies on research with human participants and/ or their confidential data, you should provide a sentence confirming research ethics approval with the name of the ethics committee and their committee reference number. If you have been working on a service evaluation, you may not need research ethics approval, but you should provide confirmation from such a committee that that is the case.
- Part 2: This part should have no information that identifies you or your supervisor. It should include an informative title, a description of your rationale for the study, the research question(s), the methods, results and conclusions, the latter including a statement of what you think your work adds to what is already known. In ensuring that there are no features in this account that identify you, your supervisor or your place of work, you may need to leave out something that will appear in any subsequent presentation or publication – for example reference to some contextual statement if you are citing earlier relevant work by your supervisor.
- We are happy to accept applications with co-authors (unnamed in part 2), but the potential prize winner must be justifiably the first author, setting out the contribution of each party in the application.
- Any type of research is welcome, but there must be a clear research question or hypothesis and the methods sufficiently clearly described that the study could be replicated by any reasonably competent researcher.
- Narrative reviews without a systematic search and documented inclusion/exclusion strategy are not within scope.
- The entries will be judged by a panel of three academic experts in the field, from the Forensic Psychiatry Faculty executive or recommended by it. The panellists will agree a rating schedule and blind rate before discussing and agreeing on the winner. Criteria will include the applicant’s extent of involvement in the study, clarity of research question, replicability of methods and appropriate interpretation for future practice and/or research.
- We reserve the right not to award the prize if no suitable application is received.
Submissions are open.
Deadline: Midnight 7 December 2026
Please contact us for any queries.
Background
This travelling fellowship is awarded biennially from funds bequeathed by Dr John Hamilton, past Honorary Secretary of the then Forensic Section, and College Fellow. It is intended to encourage psychiatrists working in the field of forensic psychiatry to broaden their knowledge and experience through travel to recognised forensic centres.
Proposals to visit developing forensic services in order to support, advise and teach will also be considered. Visits are expected to last about two to four weeks and would normally be to centre (s) overseas.
Prize
£2,000
Who can enter
The fellowship is open to UK higher resident doctors in forensic psychiatry and to consultants in forensic psychiatry in the UK in substantive posts.
Rules
Please email us a detailed proposal in not more than 1,500 words describing how the time will be spent. Though not essential, you may wish to pursue a research topic or a comparative study.
Our judging panel will rate your proposal according to its originality, its relevance to forensic psychiatry, its potential for enhancing services and its feasibility and will look for:
a description of the background to the proposal, its aims and purpose, the methods by which these will be achieved and the likely implications of having completed the visit.
Be ambitious, but the assessing panel will also place great weight on focus and feasibility. This fellowship may, for example, provide an opportunity to initiate an international research collaboration, or pave the way towards it, but completion of worthwhile research in 2-4 weeks is unlikely.
Other examples of supportable proposals include (but are not confined to) learning an assessment or management technique which would not otherwise be possible, or providing training in something along these lines for a developing service which would otherwise have a development gap.
- details of the centres to be visited and the reasons for visiting
- intended immediate and short-term outcomes and how these will be measured or demonstrated - with a statement of longer-term implications where possible
- details of the costs involved, including travel costs
- details of any other sources of funding, where relevant.
The following should also be received by the closing date:
- a full curriculum vitae
- two professional references, including one from either the training programme director for resident doctors or clinical director or equivalent for consultants. References may be checked, so referee contact details should be provided
- information about the centre(s) to be visited
- an email from the host centre confirming that your visit has been accepted
- confirmation from your employing authority that study leave will be granted if the application is successful.
The winner will be selected by the executive committee, normally via a nominated panel.
We reserve the right not to award the fellowship if no suitable application is received.
Your visit should take place within one year of the award being made.
The successful candidate will be expected to submit a report to our Chair on the conclusion of the fellowship. The successful candidate will also be expected to submit details of how the fellowship fund was used, including copies of receipts.
Submissions
Submissions are now closed. Please contact us for any queries.
Prize information
The Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry is offering a monetary prize for an essay of 4,000 words. The winner will also receive a bursary to attend the Faculty conference.
The bursary will include registration for the full conference, attendance at the conference dinner and money towards travel, accommodation and subsistence.
Authors of high-scoring essays may be invited to make a short presentation about their essay at the conference.
How often?
Annual
Eligible
Medical students from UK medical schools who submit the essay before graduation or no longer than three months after graduation.
Rules
Please submit an essay with the following title:
The role of forensic psychiatrists in the primary prevention of offending behaviour.
- The essay should be no more than 4,000 words including footnotes and an appendix. The bibliography does not count towards the word count.
- Please include the word count on your essay.
- The essay should be researched from relevant literature and based on theory. Essays which are written around clinical cases are not eligible.
- Please do not include your name in the essay text.
- Please also include a short curriculum vitae, removing personal details (name, address, etc), names of institutions or organisations or anything that could identify you.
- Email us your CV and essay by the deadline of midnight on 14 November 2026.
- The examining panel may decide in certain circumstances that an oral examination is necessary.
- Candidates are advised, where possible, to discuss their essay with a Forensic psychiatrist.
- The prize will be judged by a panel appointed by the Faculty executive committee and their decision is final.
- The winner of the prize will be awarded prize money (amount tbc) and a bursary to attend the Faculty conference.
- The authors of high-scoring essays may be awarded bursaries to attend the Faculty conference and may be offered the opportunity to present their essay.
Submissions open
Submissions are now open for the 2027 prize.
The deadline is midnight 14 November 2026.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Our research prize aims to encourage research in the field, provide a platform for research and to bring the results of research to the attention of faculty members.
Prize
£500 and a certificate.
Frequency
Annually
Who can enter
The prize is open to researchers in the field of forensic psychiatry from all professions, including resident doctors and senior staff.
Note: Any researcher of any grade who has submitted an oral presentation for our annual residential meeting will be eligible for entry to the prize and will be automatically submitted, providing the entry meets all submission criteria.
Where presented
Our annual faculty conference.
Rules
- All eligible applications to present at the annual residential meeting will automatically enter the prize
- occurs prior to the meeting by a panel nominated by our executive
- is based on of the submission abstract, taking into account originality, methodology, and research findings
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give an oral presentation of their work.
- Approximately six presentations will be shortlisted for oral presentation
- The prize will be awarded by a panel of three judges who are nominated by our academic secretary
- The judges' decision will take into account the academic quality of the project, the quality of the oral presentation and how the presenter deals with questions from the audience and judges
- The judges' decision will be final and no prize will be awarded if a sufficient standard is not reached.
Submissions and date
Please see conference information for closing date and submission advice. The closing date will be the same as the date for submission of annual residential meeting poster and presentation entries, usually in October each year.
2025
Winner-Dr Daniel O'Connor- Presentation titled-"Associations between insight and legal capacity to consent in psychosis: A D-FOREST study".
2023
Winner- Dr John Tully
2022
Joint winners - Dr Lindsey McIntosh and Dr Howard Ryland
2021
Winner – Professor Lindsay Thomson
2020
Winner – Dr Roland Jones
2019
Winner – Dr Joanne Parry
2018
Winner – Mr Jack Tomlin
2017
Winner – Dr Conor O'Neill
2016
Winner – Dr Kapil Sharma
The Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry offer up to 10 bursaries for UK medical students to attend the National Forensic Psychiatry Resident Doctors Conference, held annually.
Award
The bursaries include free registration and £500 towards travel, accommodation and subsistence (booked in line with College policy).
Frequency
Annual
Who can apply
Current UK medical students
How to apply
Please email us a brief statement about why you would like to attend the meeting, together with a short CV, Please remove any personal information and names of organisations/institutions from your CV.
Submissions Open
Submissions for the 2027 bursaries are now open.
Deadline: Midnight 19 February 2027
Please send any questions to Faculty Committees.
This bursary is to support attendance at the Irsee residential seminar held in August or September each year. The bursary will be paid on submission of confirmation that your place had been booked.
Background
Laws and justice systems are well known to differ between countries; attitudes to mental disorder and its definitions may also differ between nations. Nevertheless, we seek and find common ground on mental disorder and ways in which it may lead to harm to others and/or offending.
The Ghent Group is an informal group of European forensic psychiatrists interested and experienced in training in the field. It is named after their first meeting in Ghent, Belgium, in 2004, and focuses on the commonalities and differences in training in different European countries.
A residential seminar has been developed - initially by academic forensic psychiatrists from the universities of Munich, Cardiff and forensic mental health services in Denmark in conjunction with Bildungswerk Irsee.
Over five days, participants study and reflect with an expert in international law from the Max Plank Institute and senior forensic psychiatrists on the theory and practice of service delivery to the courts and to patients through didactic sessions, academic debate and case discussions.
The seminar
The seminar will be held on 10-14 August 2026 in Kloster Seeon.
Amount
£1,000
Who can apply
The award is open Forensic Faculty members who are UK Resident Doctors (ST4-6) in forensic psychiatry or UK consultants in forensic psychiatry.
Rules
- Please email us an up-to-date CV and a brief statement (up to 500 words) on your reasons for wanting to attend the seminar, the ways in which attendance would specifically benefit your training, development or practice, and how you might disseminate the learning experience
- Entries will be evaluated by a panel nominated by the executive committee.
Submissions
Submissions are now closed for 2026.
Our resident doctors research prize aims to encourage research in the field of Forensic psychiatry, provide a platform for research and bring results of research to the attention of faculty members.
Prize
A certificate, awarded at the Annual Faculty Conference
Frequency
Annually
Who can enter
The prize is open to Resident Doctors in the field of forensic psychiatry.
Where presented
The annual faculty conference.
Rules
- Judging criteria would include the originality of the theme, the research idea and methodology.
- Marks will also be awarded for the literature review and discussion as well as practical application of the work.
- The judging panel will be made up of established academics in Forensic Psychiatry.
Submission information
Please see the conference information for the closing date and submission advice which will be published soon on this page.