The CBS Undergraduate Research Travel Award is meant to support travel costs for individual students who are participating in a research conference as part of their University of Minnesota research lab experience.

Award Overview

CBS Undergraduate Research Travel Awards are available to undergraduate students to cover travel expenses to present at a scientific conference. To qualify for a travel award, the applicant must be a current CBS student who is working under the direction of a University of Minnesota faculty member in a research group. Eligible expenses include registration and travel, e.g. airfare, train, personal or rental car, rideshare/taxi fare, etc. If travel is shared for a hotel, rental car/mileage with another person also attending the conference, only the CBS undergraduate travel awardee’s portion of the expense will be eligible for support. CBS encourages research PIs to provide matching funds in any amount to help support their undergraduate students’ conference travel, but a match is not required for students to be eligible.

The maximum award depends on the scope of the conference, whether regional (no air travel needed), national, or international. Awardees will work with CBS undergraduate programs staff to plan and cover the expenses directly, or in exceptional circumstances, coordinate reimbursement if e.g. registration has already been paid. Note that because of university-level limitations on reimbursement timelines (must be within 60 days of the expense), students are encouraged to apply for the award as early as possible in their planning process, to ensure any personally-incurred costs will be eligible for reimbursement.

Maximum Award Amounts:

• Regional (no air travel required): Up to $500

• National: Up to $1,500

• International: Up to $2,500

Guidelines for Award Eligibility​

1. College of Biological Sciences undergraduate students who are participating in an independent research project at the University of Minnesota with a research group supervised by a University of Minnesota faculty member as the Principal Investigator, PI.
2. CBS undergraduate students must have a minimum cumulative 2.5 GPA to be eligible for the award. Applicants must be degree-seeking students and registered for at least 13 undergraduate credits in the semester that they will attend the research conference. Eligibility for college financial aid is not required in order to receive this award.
3. The student must be presenting their research at the conference as a poster, an oral presentation, or other appropriate format for the specific conference.
4. Students who have previously received the CBS Undergraduate Research Travel Award are not eligible to apply.
5. The student must apply before attending the conference. Applications submitted after the completion of the conference will not be considered.
    

Deadline for Application

• Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Students are strongly encouraged to apply as early as possible before the scheduled conference date, so travel planning costs can be covered directly rather than by reimbursement.
• Applications need to be completed prior to the student attending the conference.
• Applications will not be considered if the student has already attended the conference.
   

To Apply

Submit an Application. The application form requires you to submit information and details about the conference, an abstract of the research you will be presenting,  an estimate of travel expenses, and the amount of any funding match available from your research PI. It also requires uploading a letter of support from your research PI. The letter should address the scientific merit of the undergraduate's work, how the meeting attendance will benefit the undergraduate, and the undergraduate's need for financial assistance to attend the meeting.

Notification

Students and Principal Investigators will be notified of the application status via email within four weeks of receiving the completed application. Questions should be directed to cbsrsrch@umn.edu.