BSSVD & British Skin Foundation Joint Small Grant Award
Entries are now closed for the 2026 British Skin Foundation/British Society for the Study of Vulval Disease Joint Small Grant Award. The results will be made available at the end of May on the BSF website.
The 2025 winning application was awarded to Jaskiran Azad and Rebecca Lapsley from South Tees NHS Foundation Trust for their study; POWER: Topical oestrogen in people with vulval lichen sclerosus.
Research Awards
We are pleased to announce funding opportunities for research into vulval conditions!
The BSSVD has collaborated with a major partner - Wellbeing of Women (WoW) - to offer a research award.
BSSVD/WoW Awards:
We are pleased to announce both an Entry Level Scholarship and Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award, in partnership with Wellbeing of Women!
These awards develop future academic leaders and offer up to £20,000 and £30,000 for research aimed at improving outcomes for women with vulval conditions.
For more information, please visit:
BSSVD WoW Entry Level Scholarship
or
BSSVD WoW Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Call Launch: Wednesday 22nd April 2026
Submission Deadline: Wednesday 22nd July 2026 at 1pm
Application Outcome: December 2026
Awards Start: January/February 2027
Please watch this space for additional funding opportunities!
Please note that we have paused the BSSVD annual grant of £10K (which was previously offered) in light of the joining funding pots.
For more information please contact the BSSVD Research lead Dr Aurora Almadori via the BSSVD email address [email protected].
BSSVD/WoW Winners
2024
Dr Louise Clarke
University of Nottingham
Exploring Health Care Professionals’ (HCPs’) Perspectives on Diagnosing Vulval Skin Disease
Aims: To explore healthcare professionals’(HCPs) perspectives on the diagnosis of vulval skin disease in primary care through investigating the experiences of HCPs who see women with vulval symptoms, examine female genitalia or perform procedures on female genitalia as part of their job roles.
Objectives:
Primary objective: To explore HCPs’ experiences of seeing women with vulval symptoms and examining the vulva.
Secondary objective: To explore HCPs’ perspectives on barriers to diagnosis of vulval skin disease in primary care, with a focus in vulval lichen sclerosus (VLS).
Tertiary objective: To establish the education and training needs of HCPs in vulval skin disease
£19,996
2024
Miss Aurora Almadori
Reconstructive Surgery for Female Genital Mutilation Survivors: a Priority Setting Partnership
Aims: We plan to conduct the ‘FGM Reconstruction Priority Setting Partnership (PSP)’ to identify unanswered questions from the perspectives of women and clinicians, and, upon reaching a consensus, to produce a list of agreed research priorities. These research priorities will then guide future surgical research in FGM and eventually lead to a well-designed clinical trial.
Objectives: The main objectives of PSP are to identify research priorities for women with lived experience of FGM and professionals. Potentially, this could include motivation for seeking surgical reconstruction, relevance of emotional and psychosexual support, outcome assessment tools, and quality of life issues related to surgical treatment.
£30,000
Dr Christos Tziotzios
Genome-wide association study and meta-analysis in female lichen sclerosus
Dr Savalingham & Dr Almadori
Early Detection of vulval Cancer Through vulval self-Examination
The effect of Adipose-derived Stem Cells (ASC) and Platelet-Rich Plasma in Vulval Lichen Sclerosus
Miss Athina Lountzi
Research priorities in vulvodynia: A modified Delphi study
and
Lichen Sclerosus Patient Information Resource
The patient perspective: Vulval Lichen Sclerosus treatments and the potential use of laser