Each year GSBS provides funding to help students defray the costs of attending scientific meetings. These Travel Awards, approved by the Office of Academic Affairs, are in the following amounts:

• M.S. & Pre-candidacy Ph.D. students -- $350
• Post-candidacy Ph.D. students -- $500

An additional $100 funding will be provided to eligible applicants who have attended a minimum of two (2) career development events during the past six (6) months. 

The Student Affairs Office considers the following criteria when reviewing a request for travel funds:

1. The student has completed the Application for Student Travel Award and has submitted the Application and additional required materials at least four weeks before requested travel date.
2. For applications to attend a meeting, the student must be first author of a presentation (talk or poster) at a regional, national or international meeting.* The research that the student present must be research performed as a UT-GSBS student. A student who has performed research prior to joining the schools as a student may not use that research as the basis for the travel.
3. For applications to attend a workshop or course, the student must present the invitation to attend plus documentation that the invitation to attend was the result of some competitive review of the student's application. 
4. The student must be in good academic standing.
5. The student must not be overdue for Committee meeting at the time of the application for the travel award.
6. The student must not have traveled (or plan to) on any kind of GSBS travel award during the current academic year (program awards excluded).
7. The student must have an ORCID account that is public, updated, and linked to his/her myGSBS page.

*Students are encouraged to submit the Travel Award Application as soon as possible, even if acceptance of abstract is pending.  Airfare and/or     registration fees can be prepaid upon acceptance of abstract.

Please note that in order to receive the funds awarded, the student must give accurate departure/return dates and times to GSBS before leaving on the trip, and the student must bring original receipts and a copy of the cover of the event's brochure to be provided to his/her department travel administrator after the trip to ensure proper travel reimbursement. All receipts should be turned in to your administrator within 30 days after the last day of your meeting.

With the goal of encouraging graduate students to attend scientific off-site courses that will benefit their training and research, the GSBS will provide awards of up to $1,000 towards course registration to selected students. Examples of such courses are offered by Cold Spring Harbor Labs and the MBL at Woods Hole. Applicants must first have been selected for admission to a course on a subject that is related to their thesis or dissertation. The application for GSBS funds must then be submitted no later than four weeks prior to the first day of travel.  Both MS and PhD students are eligible.

Please note that GSBS funds from this award may be used only toward the costs of course registration (they may not be used for airfare, parking, etc).

Application: The application should include the following information. 

• A completed Application form for Offsite Course Travel Award

• Proof that the applicant has been admitted to the course and was considered for financial aid by the course organizers (only students who can document that they have applied for financial aid from the course organizers will be considered for a GSBS award. It is not required that aid was granted).  

• A short statement (< 200 words) from the student describing both how the course will benefit the student’s training and its relationship to the thesis or dissertation project.                                                             

Applications will be reviewed by the Office of Academic Affairs using the following criteria:  

• Potential impact of the course on the student and relevance to the research project  

• The academic standing of the student and full-time registration.  

• Students who are overdue for committee meetings or degree milestones will not be considered unless the delay has been specifically approved by GSBS Academic Affairs.  

• The student must not have traveled (or plan to) on any kind of GSBS travel award during the current academic year (program awards excluded).

• The student must have an ORCID account that is public, updated, and linked to his/her myGSBS page.

Note: In accepting this award the student agrees in advance to participate in an educational event at which they will be asked to make a presentation on their experiences in the course to other interested GSBS students.