Travel grants for young researchers
Grant purpose
SPPS supports young scientists working in a Nordic country who would like to attend a conference or course in another Nordic country. The SPPS council prioritizes application as follows:
- 1. SPPS congress and SPPS PhD conference
- 2. Events sponsored by SPPS
- 3. Any other plant science conference or course within the Nordic countries.
General rules
- You must be a member of SPPS at the PhD or Postdoc levels. Join here!
- Applications for travel grants to an SPPS congress or SPPS PhD conference have specific deadlines that will be announced in connection with the congress announcement.
- Applications for other events can be submitted at any time and they should be handled by SPPS before the event. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure the proposal reaches SPPS in good time. SPPS suggests to avoid making any bookings until a decision has been reached.
- Grants up to 10,000 SEK will be evaluated on a regular basis (allow 2-3 weeks processing time).
- Applications above this amount should reach SPPS at least 2 weeks before a council meeting. Dates are announced under Society News> Council meetings.
- SPPS travel grants cover:
Reasonable traveling expenses
Reasonable accommodation that is not included in the conference fee
If needed, personal insurance for the duration of the travel
- SPPS travel grants do NOT cover:
Conference fees (including accommodation covered by these fees)
Food
Overhead fees and/or booking fees
- Active participation in the meeting (oral or poster presentation) or course is required. Make sure to ask for a certificate of attendance.
- SPPS has committed to work towards the UN sustainability goals. Avoidable CO2 emissions will negatively impact applications that include traveling, even if a train ticket is more expensive than a flight. However, we acknowledge that time is a limited resource and that some places within the Nordic countries are difficult to reach without an airplane. If you feel that you cannot avoid air travel, you must include a comparison between air-bound and ground transportation options including a door-to-door time plan, financial cost and CO2 footprint. The CO2 footprint can be calculated with the help of many free resources on the web like this Emmission Calculator.
- All successful grantees must submit a financial and scientific report at the end of the activity using the following forms:
- Template for financial report (to be submitted as a single pdf file including all bills and expense justifications)
- Template for scientific report (to be submitted as a word file together with a 400×400 pixels picture of the activity in a png format)
How To Apply
Follow the link below to our application form and make sure to include the following attachments as pdf files. Incomplete or faulty applications will be automatically rejected:
- A cover letter in the approved SPPS format- Download here
- A motivation for the application describing the activity and how this will have an impact of the young researchers work/development (max. 1 page)
- A clear budget divided in items with estimated costs and a justification for each item.
- A CV and publication list (max. 2 pages).
- Documentation for the applied expenses (e.g. screenshot showing train/flight/accommodation prizes).
- Documentation (e.g. screenshot) of at least 2 alternative accommodation possibilities to the option included in the budget. One of them should typically be in a lower price range. The council might fully reject an application if accommodation costs seem excessive.
- A written justification of the need for air travel, including a comparison to ground transportation with respect to CO2 footprint, financial costs, and door-to-door time plan.
