The Biology Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is offering a limited number of travel grants, up to $250 each, for undergraduate students presenting original research results at a regional or national, discipline-specific meeting during the fiscal year 2009 - 2010.  Award recipients are required to acknowledge CUR for support of their travel in their talk or poster.  After the meeting, a brief report about the experience is expected. Minority students are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Undergraduate student must be a junior or senior and travel must be completed within 3 months of graduation.
• Student’s mentor must be a CUR member or the student’s home institution must be a CUR institutional member
• Student’s home institution must provide at least a 50% match to support travel

Application materials:

• An electronic copy of the meeting abstract, including the title of the abstract, student authors, faculty mentor, and institution.  If the abstract is written in highly technical terms the applicant may also submit a brief (maximum 500 words) summary of the work written for an audience consisting of biologists from a wide range of disciplines;
• Email from sponsoring faculty acknowledging (1) student’s Jr. or Sr. class status, (2) confirmation of the abstract’s eventual acceptance (we will review abstracts before they are accepted for presentation but awarding of the travel funds from CUR will be contingent on the eventual acceptance of the abstract), (3) student’s attendance at meeting, and (4) confirmation of institution’s monetary match;
• A list of itemized meeting expenses (travel, housing, and registration) to be followed by copies of the receipts for which the student is requesting reimbursement (receipts may be faxed later depending on date of meeting)

Selection Criteria:  Travel Award recipients will be chosen based on the scholarly merit of their abstract, which should include:

• A sentence that clearly states the study’s OBJECTIVE (unless included in the title);
• A brief statement of METHODS (if pertinent);
• A summary of the RESULTS;
• A statement of CONCLUSIONS (it is not acceptable to state “the results will be discussed”);
• A statement of SIGNIFICANCE.

Deadline:  Applications must be received by 5 pm PST September 1st for meetings held September 2009 – March 2010 or by 5 pm PST March 1st, 2010 for meetings held March – August 2010. Award decisions will be made as quickly as possible after the appropriate deadline.

Send Application Materials:   by email to ehiatt@kwc.edu and fax receipts (only) to Evelyn Hiatt at Kentucky Wesleyan College 270-852-3145.