Wanting to go to a conference but worried about the expense? Final-year PhD student, Naomi Thorne, shares all of the places you can apply for funding, from the conference organisers to Biotech companies. Happy conferencing!
Conferences are a fantastic opportunity for early-career researchers. It’s an opportunity to share your work with like-minded scientists, expand your network by meeting academics and hear directly from experts in your field. Not to mention, there are great opportunities to socialise with other PhD students: eating, drinking, exploring and enjoying some time away from the lab. However, they can be pretty expensive! Many conference trips cost upwards of £300, and that’s just for the registration. Factoring in transport and accommodation, my trip to the Quality Control in Life Processes conference in Frankfurt, Germany, cost a little over £1000. It’s a lot of money, and the cost can be really off-putting when it comes to planning a conference trip. Thankfully, this financial barrier can be broken down by organisations that offer travel grants and bursaries for early-career researchers. As a final-year PhD student, who has secured funding from several different sources for my conference trips, I wanted to share the best places I’ve found to apply for funding.
1 - Your university
One of the first places I checked was my university itself. Many institutions have funding available, either to all PhD students or on an application basis. Where I am studying, at the University of Southampton, the School of Biological Sciences offers one £250 bursary to all PhD students during their candidature. This was not readily advertised though – speak to your supervisor, as well as other PhD students, about opportunities like this, as they can be a very easy way to get some funding.
2 - Your PhD funder
Another good place to check is your PhD funding body. It is a good idea to visit their website or speak directly to trustees to see if they offer funding to current candidates. Of course, this will depend on who your project is funded by, but charities in particular may have money set aside specifically for these occasions. Those that operate on a smaller scale, with a lower number of students, are often very keen to support the students they have, so it is definitely worth asking.
3 - Conference organisers
Often, the conference organisers offer a bursary scheme that you can apply for at the time of registration. Last year, I received a bursary for the Wellcome Trust conference on Trafficking Pathways in Neurodegeneration which covered 50% of the conference fee. They are usually awarded based on early-career status and the quality of the abstract submitted, with priority given to those giving a poster presentation or talk. There are usually a limited number too – there were about 10 at my conference – so make sure you get in early.
4 - Societies
Scientific societies are another great place to find travel awards, but you usually have to be a member for at least a year in order to apply for them. Knowing this, I would say it is worth getting a membership early on in your PhD, so that you have the year of membership behind you by the time you want to attend a conference! Some universities will even pay for one society membership for their students, so check their policy on this before you sign up. Sometimes societies offer funding for any conference, but often they are limited to that society’s flagship event, for example the British Neuroscience Association has a bursary scheme which is specifically for the Festival of Neuroscience. Some examples of societies with such schemes are listed below:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Royal Society of Biology
Company of Biologists (BSCB)
British Neuroscience Association
Physiological Society
British Pharmacological Society
5 - Charities
Some larger charities have travel awards available to early-career researchers, but they, understandably, want the conference you attend to be related to their work and research interests. They often require you to write up a report about the conference afterwards, which is a fair task in return for the money! For example, you can apply to Guarantors of BRAIN, as long as your work and conference is related to the field of neuroscience.
6 - Biotech companies
Finally, scientific and biotech companies are a good place to look. Many of them now offer travel grants which you can apply for, though they are a bit more selective; they have a small, set number of winners. Most of them judge this by looking at your conference abstract, though BioLegend asks you to explain how their products have enabled your work. I was lucky enough to win a £400 award from BioLegend last year after I wrote 200 words on how I used their antibodies in my immunofluorescence staining. It was definitely the quickest application I made for funding! Examples of companies with travel grant competitions are listed below:
BioLegend
Hello Bio
Proteintech (conference-specific)
There are a few important things to remember when it comes to applying for funding, so I will leave you with a few quick tips:
Always check the dates – some travel awards only open at certain times of the year, but run out quite quickly. Make a note of these time periods to make sure you don’t miss out.
Don’t leave it too late – it will take time for people to get back to you, and you usually can’t apply for a conference you’ve already attended.
You can apply to more than one source – don’t just wait to hear back from one place; apply to several! You can always withdraw an application if you source the money elsewhere.
Some places grant money more than once – many places have a one-time policy on bursaries, but some don’t, so it’s important to check this if you have applied before but are heading to another conference. For example, Guarantors of BRAIN allows a maximum of three awards per person, but only one per year.
Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get the first ones you apply for – some of these awards can be really competitive! There were several that I didn’t win or hear back from, but you just have to keep going.
Check the terms of each funding application – some places require you to have an accepted abstract for a conference, but others only require proof of registration.
This article was written by Naomi Thorne and edited by Rebecca Pope. Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch!
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