We are so excited to announce the creation of The UChicago BSD CAP (Career Advancement for Postdocs) Award: a new Travel Award just for BSD Postdocs! Awards of up to $500 for attendance at scientific meetings and up to $1000 for professional development meetings will be given, and are meant to serve as supplements to costs related to attending scientific or professional development meetings. Funds provided by this travel award are restricted to the payment of registration fees, travel costs, or accommodation costs at the meeting. Travel is not required to be eligible for the award (funds can be used towards attendance at a local meeting) and is not required that all funds of the award used. The next application deadline will be Friday, June 14th, 2019. For any questions regarding the CAP Award, please email PDA President Parker Woods or PDA Vice President Britney Helling.
Please Review Eligibility and Award Rules:
- Must be a BSD-Appointed Postdoctoral Scholar or Postdoctoral Fellow
- Must provide proof of abstract submission or meeting registration (i.e. must already have active plans to attend the meeting). For scientific meeting, must also submit scientific abstract
- Postdocs may only submit one application per award cycle (i.e. cannot submit applications for two conferences in the same award period). Postdocs who are not selected are welcome to reapply the next award cycle for the same meeting, with the caveat that funds will not be awarded for meetings that have taken place prior to the application deadlines
- For scientific meetings, must provide a statement (<500 words) of the purpose of attending the meeting and how attending the meeting will advance your scientific career as a postdoc and/or beyond
- For professional development meetings, must provide a statement (<500 words) describing how the meeting will help you to advance your career or professional development goals
- For professional development awards, must provide a statement of where remaining funds will come from, along with a statement of support (only one sentence needed indicating approval in attending meeting) from your PI
- Funds from the travel awards are not transferable to another conference or lab member
- Applicants for scientific meetings, provided all eligibility criteria are met, will be entered into a lottery and chosen at random
- Applications for professional development meetings, provided all eligibility criteria are met, will be judged based on merit by a committee of faculty and staff members
- Postdocs are eligible to receive only one scientific meeting travel award and one professional development meeting travel award every two years during their time at UChicago
- Meeting may take place at any time after the application deadline. Award winners will be announced ~2 weeks after the application deadline and at this point, funds will be immediately available for use
NOTE: Before applying, please review this Frequently Asked Question:
Q: Is the meeting I am planning to attend considered scientific or professional?
A: Excellent question! Academic meetings fall under the category of scientific meetings. If the main objective of the conference is to discuss and present concepts and results related to your field of science, the meeting is considered to be academic/scientific, although scientific meetings often also have professional development aspects. Professional development meetings are ones in which the main objective of the meeting is not to discuss scientific concepts (NOTE: the ONLY exception to this rule is in the case of a course. If applying to take a course related to developing a new skill, that skill can be scientific or non-scientific, and is eligible for the professional development award). These meetings are meant to develop a professional skill and could include things like leadership conferences, grantsmanship workshops, project management training, teaching courses, a course or workshops related to developing a new skill, or science policy meetings, for example. The AAAS and NPA Annual Meetings are good examples of professional development conferences.