4S administers travel funds to support the participation of students and other low-income scholars in its annual meetings. The primary source of funding available to support graduate student travel is the National Science Foundation-supported travel grant. The secondary source of funding comes from the additional revenue generated from sustaining members and is used to support meeting participation by both students and other low-income scholars. There is a third way to waive registration fees, which involves volunteering. Please see the volunteering page for this information.
Awards are available for travel expenses only, and therefore do not include food or lodging. However, applicants who receive grants will also receive complimentary conference registration. The amount of each award will be determined once all applications have been received. Individual awards are in the range of $150-400, but can be up to $1000 in some circumstances, subject to the total amount of 4S travel funds available.
Please note that due to limited funds we are unable to award travel grants to all applicants. The funding decision will be based on the following criteria:
APPLICATIONS FOR TRAVEL GRANTS ARE NOW CLOSED
Applications open after abstract acceptance notices are sent.
To qualify for a travel award, an applicant must be a student or other low-income scholar presenting a paper at the 4S Annual Meeting and a member of 4S. In cases of co-authorship, no more than one award will be granted for each paper presented.
Applicants can ordinarily expect to hear the outcome in time to make the early registration deadline. If announcements run beyond this deadline, we will extend the early registration deadline for unsuccessful applicants and refund any registration fee already paid by successful applicants.
Reimbursements are distributed after the meeting. Save your receipts to submit via the reimbursement form.
The application deadline for 2023 is August 10, 2023 in any time zone.
For graduate students receiving support from the base funding, it is important to note that funds for these awards are provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, and therefore, 4S must comply with U.S. federal rules for reimbursable travel. The awardee is responsible for adhering to the terms specified in Research Terms and Conditions NSF document, Point 10 of GC-1, January 30, 2023. By submitting the application form the applicant agrees to abide by these terms. Reimbursement will not be provided unless these terms are followed.
Note that all air travel is economy-class, and must occur on a U.S. carrier or in a U.S. airline designated seat on a foreign airline. Please refer to the embedded PDF below. Original receipts carrying the airline’s designator code and flight number must be provided (if you have an e-ticket, you must get a receipt at the time of check-in). Under certain circumstances, as described in the NSF guidelines, travel on a foreign carrier may be allowed. In such cases, documentation indicating the unsuitability of U.S. carrier itineraries is required.
For more information, please contact Dr Amanda Windle via info@4sonline.org. In the subject line, put 4S Travel Grant Application: [add your name].