Travel Awards
Explore opportunities to fund conference travel at Penn State
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The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences Graduate Travel Award provides doctoral students of the Huck Institutes with greater experience and networking opportunities by giving them the opportunity to attend scientific meetings. Specifically, this fund provides travel support to Huck doctoral candidates who are presenting at a domestic or international conference. The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences Graduate Travel Award is made possible by the J. Lloyd and Dorothy Foehr Huck Endowment.
The chair of the graduate program can choose to provide travel support to students with accepted abstracts or invitations to speak at a national or international meeting. This support can be provided up to two times for each doctoral student (only one time per fiscal year per student). Maximum awards are $900 for domestic travel and $1,800 for international travel. Upon completion of the trip, students must submit their receipts to their home department financial staff members for processing.
Eligibility
Huck graduate students who have been invited to talk or to present a poster (must include invitation to talk/abstract for poster) are eligible to apply for a travel award. Students must apply for the funds prior to the travel in order to be reimbursed. If the application is not submitted prior to travel, the student will not be considered for a Huck Travel Award.
- You must be a doctoral student in good standing in one of the Huck Institutes graduate programs.
- You must have an accepted abstract or invitation to speak or present a poster at a national or international meeting.
- You may receive this award twice within your graduate career (either for 2 domestic meetings or 1 domestic and 1 international meeting).
- Your application must be submitted and approved before your meeting travel begins.
Important Information
Before completing the online application, please be aware of the following additional details:
- This award will cover expenses for conference registration, lodging, and transportation (eg, airfare, mileage) only, in accordance with Penn State Travel Policy. Meals are not covered by this award.
- International travel must be approved at least 30 days prior to the trip through the Global Safety Network (GSN); a copy of this approval must be submitted with your receipts.
- Receipts must be reconciled within 30 days after the end date of the meeting through your home department; budget information will be provided to the administrative support person listed in your application.
- This award is paid as a reimbursement only. Funds cannot be awarded prior to completion of travel.
- All travel and reimbursement must be completed prior to your defense or termination from your graduate program.
- Unspent travel funds cannot be used for or combined with any other travel request.
- Your program chair is the one who will approve or deny your Huck Travel Award application.
- Non-submitted entries will be saved but applications will only be sent to the administrator after the SUBMIT button is clicked.
Application Requirement
To apply, you must submit a request form via the link at the bottom of this page. That form will be automatically sent to your program chair for review and approval. If approved, you will receive an email notification via ServiceNow (Penn State IT).
NOTE: Submitting a Request for a Graduate Travel Award via the form linked below will generate a Penn State IT ticket in the ServiceNow system. All communication regarding the award will be sent through this ticket.
Allowable expenses with documentation (no per diem/other expenses):
- Transportation (air fare, mileage, etc.)
- Lodging
- Conference registration
Questions not answered by the information above may be addressed via email to the Huck's Office for Graduate Education.
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The Ecology Professional Meeting Travel Award encourages participation in and presentation of original research findings at scientific meetings by graduate students in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology.
Award Amount
A maximum of $200 per student helps defray travel costs to a national or international scientific meeting.
Award Frequency
Eligible students may apply once per year. Preference will be given to eligible applicants who have not previously received a professional meeting travel award from Ecology program.
Eligibility
- Must be officially enrolled for credits as a M.S. or Ph.D. student in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology during either the semester in which the paper is presented or the semester immediately prior to the presentation.
- Priority will be given to those presenting an oral presentation rather than a poster presentation at a national or international meeting.
- Must be the senior author of the presentation.
- Must base the presentation on original ecological research conducted in partial fulfillment of the M.S. or Ph.D. degree in Ecology at Penn State.
Consideration for the Award
A call for applications will be issued early in the spring semester of each year. The application should consist of the following:
- A cover page with title of presentation, name of author(s), location and date of scientific meeting, statement on how award will be spent (e.g., lodging, vehicle rental), and signature of your Ecology research advisor endorsing your presentation. Also indicate if you have previously received travel award funding.
- An abstract page with objective, methodology, results, and conclusions limited to one page, single-spaced; should be an informative abstract. The abstracts will be reviewed and ranked by the Andersen Award committee. Applications submitted for, but not awarded the Andersen Travel Award, will be considered for a Professional Meeting Travel Award.
- If given an award, the student should contact the Huck Office of Graduate Education to arrange acceptance of the travel award upon return from the meeting.
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The Frank A. Andersen Travel Award is recognizes Ecology graduate students who have achieved excellence in their research and who will benefit from participation at an approved professional conference. Support for this award has been contributed by F. Alan Andersen in memory of his father, Frank A. Andersen.
Award Amount
Award amount varies each year with some previous amounts being upwards of $800. The recipient(s) shall be determined by the awards committee comprised of an elected representative, selected members of the Ecology Graduate Student Organization, and a faculty member or program chair. Any available monies not awarded in a particular year shall be added to funds available for expenditure in the following year. The awards committee will announce the amount of available funds early in the spring semester.
Award Frequency
Each award shall be for one academic year. Further extraordinary accomplishments by a recipient may enable that recipient to be again considered for this award. Preference shall be given to eligible applicants who have not previously received this award.
Eligibility
Consideration for this award shall be given to all graduate students enrolled in the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School who have achieved excellence in their research topic in Ecology and who will greatly benefit from active participation in an approved professional conference where the student will have opportunities to interact with other colleagues and scholars in their field of study. Students must be officially enrolled for credits as a M.S. or Ph.D. student in the in the Ecology program during either the semester in which the paper is presented or the semester immediately prior to the presentation. Priority will be given to those giving an oral presentation at a national or international meeting. Students must be the senior author of the presentation, and the presentation must be based on original ecological research conducted in partial fulfillment of the M.S. or Ph.D. degree in Ecology at Penn State.
Consideration for the Award
A call for applications will be issued early in the spring semester of each year. Please consult the Ecology program emails for specific requirements and due dates. Late requests will not be considered. The application should consist of the following:
- Candidates will submit a short (< 250 words) abstract for review, along with a funding request for a particular conference to the award selection committee. The abstract may be a copy of the candidate's official meeting abstract or, to remain within the 250 word limit, a summary of said abstract.
- The awards committee will select the recipient based on abstract quality and available funds by the given due date.
- If selected for this award, recipients must give an oral presentation at the conference.
- Upon returning from the conference, awardees will be required to write a short reflection on the conference for the Ecology program newsletter. This reflection should be submitted to the Andersen Rep with copies to the Ecology Service Assistant and the Huck records specialist assigned to the Ecology program. Upon receipt of the reflection, the Huck records specialist will notify the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards to disburse the award.
Amendment
The Board of Trustees of The Pennsylvania State University, in consultation with the donor when possible, shall have the authority to make changes in these guidelines which are necessary to ensure the fulfillment of the above-stated objectives.
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In collaboration with the Fox Graduate School, Penn State Global supports graduate student travel to present at international conferences.
- The graduate student international travel grant program promotes Penn State’s global leadership in scholarship, research and international engagement.
- International graduate students are welcomed and encouraged to apply.
- Awards are contingent upon the availability of funds and the number of applications received. Applicants are strongly encouraged to seek additional funding sources, including matching funds from their campus/college/department or external funding sources.
- Applicants must be currently registered Penn State graduate students in good academic standing at the time of application and at the time of travel.
- Applications are accepted at Penn State’s InfoReady page during the first month of the spring and fall semesters.
Learn more about these awards by visiting the Penn State Global page here.