+ Eligibility Requirements

Essential criteria:

• You must be a member of ASM for a minimum of 2 years at the due date of the application. Members who have previously received this award are not eligible to apply.
• PhD students must be enrolled in a PhD program in Australia and have had their candidature confirmed.
• ECRs should have been engaged in research for not more than 5 years after their doctoral qualification (or equivalent). Time may be added to this total in respect of career breaks for parenthood or other substantive reasons.
• You are currently working at an Australian University/hospital/research institute and your research is in the discipline of microbiology.

+ Application Requirements

Applications must include:

• An accepted Abstract of a presentation (oral or poster) at the selected international conference. The conference must be in the discipline of Microbiology, and you should justify your selection (0.5 page). Examples include major conferences such as the American Society for Microbiology National Conference, the UK Microbiology Society Annual Conference, the FEMS Microbiology Congress, or the International Union of Microbiological Societies Congress, as well as more specialized conferences such as Gordon or EMBO conferences.
• A letter of agreement to visit a research laboratory in the period immediately before or immediately after the selected conference.
• A brief curriculum vitae (2 pages).
• A synopsis of your research, current position and career goals, including details of how travel to the laboratory you will visit will advance the development of your career (1 page.

+ Conditions of Award

• Award holders will normally be expected to continue to receive a salary/student stipend from their home institution or other source.
• Payment of the award is conditional on the applicant presenting his/her research at the selected conference.
• Applicants are expected to have adequate insurance arrangements and to provide evidence of this. The scheme does not cover the costs of insurance.
• All grant recipients must complete a short project report and provide a statement of expenditure (backed up by receipts/invoices as appropriate) within one month of return from Australia.
• Student applicants must be enrolled in a PhD program and have had their candidature confirmed.

+ Award Review Committee

The award will be determined by the Executive Committee and will be ranked on the following criteria:

• Scientific excellence of the applicant – CV.
• Quality and originality of proposed presentation – Abstract.
• Depth of the applicant's research experience – Synopsis of Research.
• Benefit of proposed research visit – Synopsis of Research.
• Active or emerging collaboration between the overseas and Australian institutions – Evidence of Collaboration or planned collaboration.