POST-DOCTORAL TRAVEL GRANTS FOR EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS (ECR)
 
The Foundation has awarded 219 individual Travel Grants since 2003. The grants are offered to further the career opportunities of early career Australian post-doctoral researchers by enabling them to make presentations of their research findings at international conferences/meetings/related activities ("conferences") where they may meet colleagues and establish the foundations for on going research collaborations.

If you are a graduate student who is ineligible for a CASS Travel Grant, The General Sir John Monash Awards may interest you.  Annually, up to eight of these Awards will be made to outstanding Australians graduating from Australian Universities to enable them to study abroad at the world’s best Universities, appropriate to their field of study.

The benefits the awardees of CASS Travel Grants report, has persuaded the Foundation to continue the program in 2010. However, the increase in the number of applications received over the past year has made it necessary to introduce more prescriptive eligibility requirements to ensure the CASS Travel Grants are offered to the early career researchers (ECR) they are intended to assist and are applied equitably and effectively.

If you would like to learn more about the genesis of the Foundation’s Travel Grants program and the perspective of a recent awardee, click on "Comments" under the "Travel" heading to open the item "Reflections on a CASS Travel Grant".
 
1. TRAVEL GRANT DETAILS
 
1.1     Please refer to the Key Dates page for details of the timetable for the 2010 CASS Travel Grants program.

1.2     The CASS Travel Grants are available to assist ECR to attend international conferences. The applicant is expected to be presenting new research as a platform presentaion or as a poster where the applicant is first author.  The grants are not available for travel to attend conferences being held in Australia.

1.3     The maximum amount of a CASS Travel Grant that may be awarded is the lesser of A$6,000.00 or eighty percent (80%) of the “Total Cost” as disclosed on the Application Form.
 
1.4     The Foundation may offer a grant of less than the amount of the CASS Travel Grant requested by the applicant without disclosing any reason for such reduction.
 
2. ELIGIBILITY
 
2.1     All applicants must be Australian Citizens or have a visa allowing them to remain permanently in Australia.  A visa issued for the purpose of full time study in Australia does not constitute permanent resident status for the purpose of a CASS Travel Grant application.

2.2     All applicants must expect to reside continuously in Australia during the period between the date of applying for a CASS Travel Grant and the scheduled date of departure (the period) nominated on the Application Form.  This restriction is to show preference for applicants who do not have access to other resources, grants or awards to cover the expense of travel to international conferences and to exclude applicants who are based temporarily or permanently outside Australia. If a successful applicant finds it necessary to undertake overseas travel in the period, the applicant must disclose full details to CASS of the reasons for travelling, which may in turn assist in demonstrating to CASS that the purpose of the overseas travel does not offend the intention of this restriction. 

2.3     The CASS Travel Grants program was developed to assist ECR.  In most cases, CASS will consider an ECR to be a researcher who is within seven or eight years of the start of their research career. This normally means that the applicant will have been awarded a PhD within the past seven or eight years.  CASS will allow some flexibility in the interpretation of this time frame where the applicant's work history or other circumstances may warrant it.
 
2.4     In its consideration of CASS Travel Grant applications, CASS will have regard to its overall funding objectives and will take into account the status of the conference and the nature and extent of the applicant’s participation in the conference proceedings and other proposed activities.  Applicants may include visits to scientific institutes and colleagues, if such activities are directly related to their primary research activities in Australia.

2.5     In view of the Foundation’s primary objectives in making Travel Grants available, awards are unlikely to be made to support overseas field work, independent research or courses of study.

3. HOW TO APPLY
 
Applications are to be lodged as a .doc file attachment sent to the e-mail address given at the top of page 1 of the application form 
The Application Form is a downloadable form available from this website on 1 January 2010.  Application opening dates are shown on the "Key Dates" page.
 
The Application Form must have attached to it a letter from the person to whom the applicant reports in their organisation:
a) recommending the conference as one relevant to the applicant’s work
b) supporting the applicant’s request and the reasons given by the applicant to travel to and attend the conference, and
c) confirming that the participation of the applicant and the platform or poster presentation to be made by the applicant will introduce new research findings. 

One quotation for the cost of the return air travel to the conference, current at the date of application, must also be attached. 

Applications received without a letter of support or an air travel quotation will not be considered.

The application will be acknowledged by e-mail to the e-mail address provided by the applicant in the Application Form. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within fourteen (14) days, please contact CASS by telephone.
 
The application will be determined in accordance with the timetable provided in the "Key Dates" page and applicants will be advised of the outcome as soon as practicable.
 
Successful applicants will be asked to sign a “Letter of Agreement” containing details of the conditions pertaining to the award of the Travel Grant.
 
4. GRANT CONDITIONS
 
4.1     Travel Grants are made directly to the researcher attending the conference for which the grant is made.
 
4.2     The published conference commencing date appearing on the conference web site must fall within the dates specified for travel grants on the relevant "Key Dates" page. 
 
4.3     Travel must be completed within 90 days of departure from Australia.
 
4.4     Travel Grant awardees are required to submit a report within thirty (30) days of their return to Australia, describing the conference attended and activity undertaken, including their assessment of the benefits they derived from their participation, together with a statement detailing how the Travel Grant awarded was spent.
   
4.5     An applicant will be awarded only one (1) CASS Travel Grant in a calendar year.
 
4.6     Applicants will be informed of the result of their application as soon as is practicable.

4.7     Details must be disclosed of awards received from other sources to support the applicant's attendance at the activity for which an application for CASS support has been or will be lodged, 
 
4.8     The decision of the Foundation’s Board of Directors on all applications is final.