HBHL International Trainee Travel Award

Overview

The Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives (HBHL) International Trainee Travel Award encourages trainees to participate and share their research on a global level. As part of that initiative, HBHL has allocated funds to support graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who wish to present their findings at international conferences taking place outside of North America, aiming to enhance the international visibility of McGill neuroscience while fostering global engagement among the brain health research community. A limited number of travel awards will be available on a competitive basis. 

Value

Bursaries will be awarded up to a maximum of $5,000. Travel bursaries may cover expenses such as airfare, registration fees, meals, childcare (up to $50 per day) and accommodations. The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $50,000, which will fund approximately 10 awards.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Applicant must be a registered McGill University graduate student or postdoctoral fellow at the time of application.
2. The conference must be an international conference* taking place outside of North America.
3. Applicant must have been accepted to present work at the conference (either poster or presentation). Email confirmation from conference organizer must be provided at the time of application.
4. Applicant must provide a signed HBHL Travel Supervisors Form.
5. Applicant’s presentation topic must be aligned with at least one of HBHL’s four Research Themes.
6. At the time of submission, applicants must provide a certificate of completion for one of CIHR's Online Training Modules on Integrating Sex and Gender in Health Research (time required: 30-45 minutes) as part of their PDF application package (see details below).

*International conference refers to the scale, content and audience of the conference. Closed invitation meetings (e.g., in-person meeting of a research collaboration) are not eligible for this award.

Application Process

Applications must be submitted through the online submission form by Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

A complete application package must include:

• Presentation/Poster Abstract
• Impact Statement (maximum one page, Arial 11 point): The applicant must provide a letter of motivation outlining how the award will support their career goals and research development.
• Statement of alignment with HBHL research areas (maximum half a page, Arial 11 point)
• Email confirmation from conference confirming poster and/or oral presentation
• Budget including quotes for budgeted travel expense: economy airfare, registration fees, meals, childcare (up to $50 per day) and accommodation
• Signed HBHL Travel Supervisors Form
• CIHR SGBA+ Training Module Certificate of completion
• A completed HBHL Travel Award application form

All applications must be submitted online through the online application form as a single PDF document. Please save the application document using the following file name format: “Lastname_Firstname.pdf” (eg., Smith_Jane or Smith_John).

Application Package and Evaluation Criteria:

Applications will be evaluated by the HBHL Travel Award Committee based on the following criteria:

• Abstract
  • Quality of the written abstract
  • Significance of the research
• Applicant’s Impact Statement
  • Extent to which the travel award would make a positive impact on the trainee’s career and training
• Topic relevance to HBHL
  • Extent to which the topic is relevant to HBHL’s research areas

Important links