PDA Travel Grants – Application and Evaluation Guidelines

December 2th 2012, Colas Schretter, Professional Development Committee

This document frames new guidelines for selecting the shortlist of travel grant

recipients. Travel grants will be up to the amount of $400. For a budget of $2000,

5 awards are given. Awardees will be reimbursed upon submission of applicable

receipts to the Treasurer of the PDA (travel, lodging, on site transportation, food).

This program is made possible by funding from the MIT Postdoctoral Association

(PDA) and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Spring deadline: 1st April 2013 http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/mit-pda/ctg-1/

The online application form will collect the following information:

1. Name

2. MIT email address

3. MIT ID number and official MIT title

4. Department and group or lab

5. Name of your principal investigator

6. MIT email address of your principal investigator

7. Conference name, date and location

8. Title, authors and abstract of your accepted paper at the conference

9. Copy of the paper acceptance notification email

10. List of your four most recent publications

11. Explain briefly why do you need a MIT PDA travel grant

12. Describe in layman terms the significance and impact of your project

For being eligible, the applicant must:

1. Be a current MIT post-doc

2. Properly fill out every sections of the application form

3. Submit only a single application form

4. Have not received a past travel grant award from the MIT PDA

5. Not be involved in any committees of the MIT PDA

6. Be presenting a talk or a poster at the conference

7. Send the application form before the start of the conference

Before ranking, eligibility criteria are checked first. The application form must be

complete and convincing. Scientific merits and originality of submitted works will

be judged only, not the overall quality of applicants. A compelling description of

significance and impact of the project will be particularly appreciated.

For selection, each member of the PDA Grant Review Committee will submit a

short phrase of comment and a tag for every application to the Professional

Development Chair. Tags are O: outstanding, G: good, P: poor, N: non-eligible. A

short list of compelling applications will be defined and the consensus list of

awardees will be decided in a round table discussion among all reviewers.