The Fellowship of Graduate Student Travel (FGST) is a new award generously established in 2002 by the SICB. The purpose of these fellowships is to provide student funds for travel and other expenses at distant research laboratories, museums, or field sites. The primary purpose is for travel to "distant" research sites to learn specialized techniques or to use unique equipment or collections. The Student Support Committee (SSC) expects to grant 3 fellowships of up to $2000 this year. In Fall 2006, the SSC reviewed over 20 applications and granted 4 FGST for a total of approximately $8000. Please be aware that we also have the Grants-in-Aid-of-Research which had a higher rate of funding (33%) in 2005.

Awards are made payable to the individual recipients. No part of an award may be used for the payment of indirect costs to the recipient's institution. All funds must be expended directly in support of the proposed investigation. Awards are made in amounts up to a maximum of $2,000. This amount is double the maximum of the Grants-In Aid- of Research (GIAR) ($1000). Students have a "lifetime eligibility" to receive only one award (FGST or GIAR).

Students may apply to only ONE award program/year.

The deadline for applications and letters of recommendation is October 1, 2007.

For questions regarding the Program, contact the chair of the Student Support Committee:
Sherry Tamone
E-mail: sherry.tamone@uas.alaska.edu

To make the application process as straightforward as possible, the Student Support Committee (SSC) has developed the following guidelines and instructions:

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL

1. Students may apply to ONLY ONE program: Either the Fellowship for Graduate Student or Grants-in-Aid of Research.

2. Awards are limited to graduate students currently enrolled in degree programs who are active members of SICB. Non-members must become members for the 2007 year to be eligible to receive awards.  Previous recipients of a SICB award (GIAR or FGST) are not eligible.  

3. If two or more applicants are working on part of a larger project but are applying separately for support, each one should identify the other applicant(s) of the project. Unless indicated to the contrary, the SSC will assume that failure to provide support for one applicant does not affect the ability of the other applicants to pursue their research.

4. All research applications and letters of recommendation must be filed electronically using the forms provided at this website.

5. Complete applications will consist of a proposal (see forms below) and two letters of reference, one of which should be from your academic advisor.

6. The student should write the proposal (3000 characters maximum), preferably with the advice of their major professor. However, the major professor should not do a substantial part of the writing, since this will defeat an important part of the process.

7. A form for the proposal is available on this page. You must use this form to submit your application. If you experience problems using the form, contact the webmaster Ruedi Birenheide by email.

8. The form has fields for requested information. You must fill in all fields unless noted otherwise. The electronic submittal system will not accept any empty fields! Limits of field length apply. Actual character counts of an entry can be viewed by the applicant on the preview page.

9. The Proposed Investigation is the most critical part of the proposal. The limited space provided (3000 characters) makes the crafting of this section challenging. The committee offers the following suggestions for applicants. Make the main points describing your proposed study as clearly and concisely as you can in your first paragraph. This should include an explicit research hypothesis that has been set in the context of a larger theory or model. A second paragraph should be used to describe the research methods that will be used. A third paragraph can be used to describe the relationship of the gathered data to the hypothesis, and how these results will relate to previous work in the field. A justification for traveling to the 'distant' location should also be clearly stated.

10. Literature Citations should be indicated, but use them sparingly. Include the authors' names and date of publication (e.g., Darwin, 1859, rather than a number) in the narrative. The full citation should be given in the appropriate field.

11. Requested Support: Ask for funding of items that will contribute directly to the success of your work. The SSC attaches low priority to requests for support to use of institutional and departmental equipment and facilities.

    1. Travel to field research sites and living expenses while doing field research (beyond those normally incurred at home) are considered fundable items.

    2. The following ARE NOT granted support:

       1. Educational programs and curriculum development.

       2. Stipends for applicants or assistants.

       3. Manuscript preparation and publication costs,

       4. Purchase of standard equipment and supplies that should normally be available in an institutional research laboratory.

       5. Travel to scientific meetings or symposia.

       6. Requests for a second award.

12. Please proofread your application before you submit it. Maintaining professional standards in writing helps establish your credibility.

13. Complete the online-form, proofread it again, and submit it via the web to SICB.

14. The applicant is responsible for the submission of TWO letters of recommendation. The SICB will NOT contact your recommenders. Letters must be submitted via a separate online form at http://www.sicb.org/grants/fgst/letterform.php3. It is critical that you provide each referee with the SAME email address that you used in your application, since we use this information to attach these letters to the appropriate proposal. In addition, this allows us to automatically notify the applicant when a letter of support has been submitted.

15. The closing date for the receipt of applications AND supporting letters is October 1, 2007.

16. The SSC is unable to provide feedback to applicants concerning their individual proposals.

The deadline for applications is October 1, 2007. Thank you.