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McGill.CA / The Brain@McGill / Funding for Students & Postdocs / Travel Awards for Graduate Students and Postdocs

Zurich Neuroscience Travel Fellowship

The Zurich Neuroscience Travel Fellowship provides support for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Brain@McGill or Oxford Neuroscience to travel to Zurich in order to undertake neuroscientific research to advance their scientific expertise. The fellowship is valued to a maximum of CHF 6’000 and is tenable only in the term, in which the travel is occurring.

Terms of Reference

  1. The Zurich NeuroscienceTravel Fellowship is intended for graduate students or postdoctoral fellows who must travel to undertake research required for their program of study/research.
  2. The Fellowship is valued up to a maximum of CHF 6’000. The duration of the research trip must be a minimum of one month to a maximum of four consecutive months. The fellowship value will be prorated depending on the duration of the research trip and its location.
  3. To be eligible to hold this Fellowship, a student must be registered at McGill or Oxford as a full-time, regular student (not “on-leave” or “part-time”) and in good standing in a master’s or doctoral program in the term for which the award is held. If applying as a postdoctoral fellow, applicants must submit the proposal within 4 years after obtaining their doctoral degree.
  4. The following categories of activities will not be supported:
        • Instructional activity (courses, field schools, training programs)
        • Conferences, seminars, working groups, etc
        • Travel to paid employment (co-op terms, internships, research assistantships, etc.)
  5. Students or postdoctoral fellows are eligible to hold no more than one Zurich Neuroscience Travel Fellowship during their degree program.
  6. Recipients of the Fellowship may accept other scholarship support from external sources.
  7. Applications should be made in writing, including the following information:
        • The name and contact information of the host supervisor, and name and location of the Department/Institute where you intend to pursue your research/study activities.
        • A CV including examination grades, publications and awards received.
        • A statement of the research to be conducted, including description of research, relevance, contribution to the student’s development as a researcher, and justification for travel (maximum 2 pages).
        • A letter of support from the senior supervisor, indicating the relevance of travel to the research and their permission.
        • A one-page budget summary, including dates of travel, travel costs, accommodation, and living expenses. (It is not necessary for these costs to equal or exceed the maximum value of the award.)
        • A letter of invitation and agreement from the host lab at Zurich.
  8. Awards are made by the Neuroscience Center Zurich Fellowship Committee and adjudicated based on the following criteria:
        • Academic ability, based on exam grades and publications.
        • The research proposal.
        • The contribution of travel to the development of the student/researcher as a researcher.


Process

Eligible individuals (see terms of reference above) may apply in writing including all required information to Wolfgang Knecht (wknecht [at] neuroscience.uzh.ch). Please carbon copy Dr. Anne McKinney (anne.mckinney [at] mcgill.ca). Applications can be handed in at any time and will be considered four (4) times a year.

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility criteria for this award are outlined in the Terms of Reference. Please note that incomplete applications will be rejected. In all cases, funding will be awarded based on scientific excellence.

Timing of Award and Accountability 

This travel fellowship is intended to support students while working on their degree requirements or advancing postdoctoral fellows. Therefore, recipients of the fellowship do not need to account for travel expenses.

However, recipients must conform to the following requirements:

• If planned research travel is delayed, a recipient may postpone the award only as far as the spring semester of the year following the application.
• Students will be required to submit a short report of their activities after the travel has been completed. Failure to do so will result in a reduction of awards made to the student’s program in future.

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