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The RCOT Annual Awards 2025
General Information
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists’ annual awards support funding for learning, development and research activities, and offer the opportunity to add to your portfolio in one or more of the four Pillars of Practice in the Career Development Framework (RCOT 2021):
- Professional Practice
- Facilitation of Learning
- Leadership
- Evidence, Research and Development
Submission date
Applications for the 2025 Annual Awards are now open. The closing date for applications is 5pm on 1 September 2025.
For enquiries, please email us at hello@rcot.co.uk
- RCOT Annual Awards guidance notes 2025
- Annual Awards checklist
- The Constance Owens Trust Awards - tips for a successful application
Eligibility
The table below breaks down the categories of the Annual Awards and which membership categories are able to apply for them.
Available Awards
Ann Carnduff Legacy CPD Activities Award – £500 each (two awards)
This new award provides financial assistance for CPD activities—whether in the UK, abroad, or online. This includes conferences, lectures, workshops, seminars, forums and networking. The award also covers RCOT paid events for members.
The Constance Owens Liverpool Award for Service Development – £1000
Provides support to an individual professional member participating in a service development activity or project likely to have an impact on outcomes for service users/carers, occupational therapy service effectiveness, and professional practice.
Institute of Social Psychiatry Award – £2,000
Provides support for an individual occupational therapist towards a research or developmental project/activity in a topic relevant to occupational therapy and mental health, that demonstrates relevance to social psychiatry. The award can be used to support formal post graduate research activities and education.
The Barbara Tyldesley Student Award – £500 each (two awards)
Provides support for a UK pre-registration student/ learner/ apprentice member’s participation in a role emerging or research placement, an approved practice placement overseas or involvement in a global health project.
International Activity Award – £750 each (two awards)
Provides support towards an individual member’s active participation in an overseas activity. This may include virtual/online participation.
Eden Travel Award - £750 each (two awards)
Provides support to cover travel costs only, which are related to a planned professional development or learning activity. The travel can be UK based or international.
Medequip Innovation Award for Community Equipment – £1,500
Provides support towards an innovative or developmental project focused on the provision of community equipment. The project needs to relate to one or more of the following criteria: personalisation, choice, sustainability, or successful outcomes.
Eden Travel Award
- 2024 - Attendance and Presentation at the European Cystic Fibrosis Conference
- 2024 - Presentation at the 1st Occupational Therapy Europe Conference in Poland
The Constance Owens Liverpool Award for Service Development
- 2023 - Holding my own destiny - person centred goal sheets
- 2023 - Therapeutic gardening group for the Sudbury Community
- 2018 - Collaborating with People First Lambeth to develop meaningful service user involvement within Sport for Confidence (PDF, 98.83KB)
- 2018 - Young People's Views Matter: development of a Young People's Council within a Child Development Centre to support engagement (PDF, 104KB)
Institute of Social Psychiatry Award
- 2021 - Exploring co-production between practitioners and service users in mental health services.pdf (PDF, 61.43KB)
- 2018 - Support for PhD studies: Anxiety and stress: exploration of common discourses influencing communication (PDF, 101.95KB)
The Barbara Tyldesley Student Award
- 2024 - Second year student elective placement in Tanzania
- 2018 - Practice placement, Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, Bangladesh (PDF, 232.96KB)
- 2018 - Canadian Exchange Program: St Joseph’s Health Care (London) / Veterans Care Program, Ontario, Canada (PDF, 129.04KB)
- 2017 - Final year clinical placement in Bangladesh with non-governmental organization (PDF, 229.98KB)
International Travel Award
- 2022 - Attendance and poster presentation at World Federation of Occupational Therapists Congress in Paris (PDF, 58.95KB)
- 2018 - Short study tour of USA visiting 2 neonatal units in New York City and Poster presentation (PDF, 98.86KB)
- 2018 - Educational visit to Handicap International local mission to understand the rehabilitation and occupational therapy needs (PDF, 98.88KB)
- 2017 - Poster on Dementia Together towards a new era, at Kyoto International Conference Centre (PDF, 235.46KB)
- 2017 - Attendance and presentation at the American Occupational Therapy Association Conference 2017 (PDF, 233.8KB)
RCOT Annual Awards FAQs
Before you read our frequently asked questions, please read our guidance notes and check the eligibility table to see which awards you can apply for based on your RCOT membership category. If you are not able to find an answer to your question below, please get in touch by emailing hello@rcot.co.uk
Who can apply for our awards?
RCOT members only can apply for awards. We have an eligibility table which outlines the awards you can apply for, based on your RCOT membership category.
Can I apply for more than one award at the same time?
Yes, you can apply for more than one award if the applications are for awards in different categories, but you mustn’t duplicate funding requests. If you apply for more than one award for the same activity, the individual applications should ask for support for different elements of the activity.
I am a student/apprentice member, which awards can I apply for?
As a student or apprentice member you can apply for The Barbara Tyldesley Student Award, The Ann Carnduff Legacy CPD Activities Award and the Eden Travel Award. For detailed guidance on the criteria for each of these award categories; please see the guidance notes 2025.
I am looking for funding to support my professional development, which awards can I apply for?
There are several awards you may be eligible to apply for to support your CPD activities. Examples include, The Ann Carnduff Legacy CPD Activities Award, The International Activity Award and The Eden Travel Award (which covers travel costs only). However, other award categories may also be relevant. It’s useful to check the eligibility table based on your membership category, the award specific guidance within the guidance document, and the marking schedules for more information.
We encourage you to consider the potential for learning and professional development across all award categories. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) state that ‘any project or activity from which you learn or develop professionally’ can count towards your CPD, so it’s important to reflect on the outcomes of your activity or project – how will this impact your practice, service delivery and benefit the occupational therapy community?
I am looking for funding to support service evaluation or practice development, which awards can I apply for?
The Constance Owens Service Development award is specifically aimed at supporting an individual occupational therapist participating in a service development activity or project relevant to occupational therapy. Again, depending on the project, you might also consider the Medequip Innovation Award for Community Equipment.
Can I use an award to cover my salary while I’m working on the project/activity?
No, award funding cannot be used to ‘enhance the applicant’s salary.’ However, funding can be used for backfill, and applicants can use the funding to pay for additional staff to cover their own work whilst undertaking project activities (but not themselves).
I am an independent practitioner and run my own business, who can provide supporting evidence for my application?
Applicants can’t authorise or sign supportive evidence to support their own activity. As an independent practitioner running your own business, you can submit a letter or email of support from a colleague, supervisor or external collaborators to confirm your participation in the activity.
As an independent practitioner, can I use an award to cover my salary while I’m working on the project/activity?
No, as above, award funding cannot be used to “enhance the applicant’s salary.” However, funding can be used for backfill, and you can use the funding to pay for additional staff to cover your work whilst undertaking project activities.
How do I make my application stand out and have a good chance of success?
Applying for an award is a competitive process. In previous funding rounds, successful applicants paid close attention to the guidance notes and submission criteria; demonstrated the impact of the activity for the people who access occupational therapy services/carers and the profession; and clearly identified benefits to their CPD.
How are the applications anonymised and assessed?
All identifying information is redacted from the application prior to sending it for review so we encourage you to use an anonymous writing style (i.e., use terms like “the service, the Trust” rather than the name of your institution/workplace). Once anonymised, the applications are independently reviewed by an external and an internal RCOT assessor. The Annual Awards panel will meet in November 2025 to decide on funding based on independent reviews. The panel is chaired by the RCOT Board of Trustees.