ABRCMS Travel Award Guidelines

The goal of the ABRCMS Travel Award is to increase the number of students pursuing advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. The program offers undergraduate and postbaccalaureate students the opportunity to participate in one of the nation’s premier student scientific meetings.

The ABRCMS Travel Award provides up to $1500 to cover registration, housing, airfare and ground transportation.  If accepted, the ABRCMS staff will handle conference registration and hotel arrangements. Reimbursement will be provided within 60 days after the conference and upon submission of expense receipts. 

All grantees must be accepted to either present a poster or oral presentation at ABRCMS.  The deadline for abstracts for either poster or oral presentation is September 11, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST. 

Eligibility Requirements

You must be an undergraduate or postbaccalaureate student who fulfills at least one of the following characteristics:  

• From an underrepresented or under-served group in the sciences or

• From a community college or

• From a minority serving institution (such as historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, or tribal colleges)

• First generation college student or

• Non-traditional student (e.g. beginning post secondary education at or after age 21, full-time employment, having dependents, taking longer than six years to complete a degree)

AND you must be:

• U.S. Citizen or U.S. permanent resident

• Full-time matriculating undergraduate student at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education or a postbaccalaureate student 

• Interested in biomedical or behavioral sciences

• Accepted to present either a poster or oral presentation at the 2009 ABRCMS

• Cannot be a past or present recipient of an ABRCMS travel award or a FASEB travel award 

• Cannot be a previous presenter at any national scientific meeting, including ABRCMS, SACNAS, FASEB, GORDON Conference, etc.

Note: Graduate students and postdoctoral scientist are not eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria

All applications will be reviewed and evaluated by the following criteria:

• Academic achievement

• Experience conducting independent work

• Interest in biomedical and/or behavioral sciences

• Motivation

Application Components:

Part 1 - Contact Information & Essays

Travel Award Submission Site - This link will take you to the Travel Award submission site. This is the same submission site used for submitting an ABRCMS abstract.

• If you are a first-time user, you must create a new profile.

• If you have submitted an abstract for a previous ABRCMS, use the same login name and password to access your account. If you have forgotten your login name or password, contact technical support and they can provide it for you.

Once you login to the site, select "Submit Undergrad Travel App" or "Submit Postbac Travel App" to begin your application.

Part 2 - Recommendations

Two recommendation forms are required as part of your Travel Award application, one from your research advisor and one from a faculty member. Recommendation forms cannot come from the same person.  Each recommendation must be completed in the forms, which are provided below and on the submission site.  It is your responsibility to provide the forms to your nominators. 

You must also indicate your applications' control number on each form.  You can find that number at the top of the page on the submission site.  Please indicate the control number on your recommendation forms prior to giving them to your nominators.  If your recommendation forms do not include the control number, they may not be matched with your application and you risk having your application not reviewed. Recommendation forms must be faxed to (202) 403-3513.

Research Advisor Recommendation Form

Faculty Member Recommendation Form

Please note that ABRCMS reserves the right to contact nominators to confirm any portion of your application.

Complete Applications

A complete application includes the online application submission and recommendation forms from a research advisor and a faculty member.

In order for your application to be reviewed, the online application must be submitted by September 11 through the online submission site and both recommendation forms must be faxed by September 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST to (202) 403-3513.

Contact ABRCMS staff Shana McBean at smcbean@asmusa.org or

(202) 942-9348 if you have questions.

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