Equitable Access to Scientific Experiences (EASE) Travel Grants

SLB is pleased to present the Equitable Access to Scientific Experiences (EASE) Travel Grant Program. This program is available to SLB members for need based grant support to attend the society's annual conference. Any member from anywhere in the world, from any institution and from any background may apply based on need if the below requirements are fulfilled. Need is defined as a significant financial impediment to attending the annual meeting, which may include, but is not exclusive to, lack of lab funding or prohibitive cost of dependent care in order to attend the meeting. These grants are applied for separately from merit awards meaning that there can be merit based recognition and additional need based support where warranted.

An ad-hoc panel will review the grant requests after the merit-based award review annually. EASE applicants will be reviewed after the merit based process so that any funds awarded during the merit process will be taken into consideration during the need assessment. The grant amounts may vary from year to year and will be determined on a case by case basis annually by the review panel. Factors include travel distance, cost of accommodations and application information. As a general guide, the maximum an applicant can expect to receive is up to $1,000, with many applicants receiving $400. For tax and audit reporting, SLB is unable to provide an individual with funds that exceed the actual travel cost of attending the meeting. This is inclusive of any EASE grants and Merit awards. Therefore, while merit award and EASE grant decisions are made independently of each other, the EASE grant amount may vary to ensure total awarded/granted funds do not exceed the actual cost to attend.

Grant applicants are required to submit an abstract for the annual meeting.

While it is SLB’s intention to provide EASE grants to support attendance to the full conference, if you are unable to attend the entire conference, please include an explanation in your statement of need of the limiting factors for your full participation (ie child/dependent care, school obligations, etc.).

The following rules and factors apply for all EASE grant requests:

1. A maximum of 1 individual per lab may apply for an EASE grant
2. Individuals from labs with funding of more than 250 direct annual funds, or 350 total current available funds, including startup or other sources of funding, may not apply. A funding confirmation letter from the PI to confirm the level of lab funding will be required as proof of the lab’s total funding for full disclosure and a transparent process at the time of application. This is required not only for proper committee consideration of the applications but also for a transparent process in the case of audit and/or for accountability of need based grant decisions.
3. Applicants will submit their anticipated cost to attend and a note of the amount of funding being received from other sources.
4. A statement of need in the applicants own words.
5. When estimating cost of attendance, hotel costs for need based applicants will be considered at 50% as the society provides room share resources.
6. Only in extremely rare cases will full airfare and hotel (at 50%) be covered.

Please refer to the application instructions and abstract system for specific application requirements.