Awards and Travel Grants
BIGS Neuroscience has a number of prizes and awards available for excellent academic achievement each year.
BIGS Neuroscience Thesis Award
We are happy to invite nominations for the BIGS Neuroscience Thesis Award. This annual award was created to honor the most outstanding doctoral thesis successfully defended by a BIGS Neuroscience Student in a given year. The winner will receive 500 EUR and a certificate.
Rules and Guidelines for the submission of entries for “BIGS Neuroscience Dissertation of the Year”
- The doctoral thesis must have been successfully defended between 1 January and 31 December of the preceding year.
- The student must have fully completed the BIGS Neuroscience curriculum.
- The candidate must be nominated by a PI of BIGS Neuroscience.
- Each PI may nominate one student per year.
The submission must comprise:
- letter of support by the thesis supervisor (2 pages max)
- short summary of thesis and CV of student (2 pages max)
- copy of the certificate of successful defense of the doctoral thesis
- copy of BIGS Neuroscience certificate
- PDF of the thesis (or download link if the file size exceeds 10 MB)
The documents should be emailed as a single PDF to BIGS Neuroscience (info@bigs-neuroscience.de). The deadline for the call in 2023 is 31 July 2024.
The BIGS Neuroscience Steering Committee will be the jury and select the winner. If none of the nominations are considered to be outstanding, the jury may decide to not award the prize.
Travel Grants & Grants for virtual events
BIGS Neuroscience is pleased to support BIGS Neuroscience graduate students with grants to participate at virtual conferences, online courses, or to travel and participate at renowned conferences (e.g. SfN or Sunposium) or innovative methods courses (e.g. Neuroimaging Technique Course at MPFI in Florida). Furthermore, we will support research stays of BIGS Neuroscience students at other universities abroad. These stays can have a maximum duration of two months.
Eligibility Criteria, Rules and Required Materials for application, and application procedure:
BIGS Neuroscience offers grants three times per year under the following conditions:
General application deadlines: Yearly on February 28th, May 31st, and September 30th
Grants for virtual courses & virtual conferences
Important: The costs can only be (partially) covered by BIGS Neuroscience if your grant to participate in a virtual course or virtual conference has been approved in advance by the BIGS Neuroscience Steering Committee.
Applications have to be submitted to the BIGS Neuroscience office via email (info@bigs-neuroscience.de). Please submit a short letter explaining why you want to attend this virtual course or virtual conference and why the attendance is relevant for the completion of your dissertation.
Travel Grants
Travel to NON-EU countries: Maximum of 1500 Euros
Travel to EU countries (and UK, Switzerland, Lichtenstein): Maximum of 750 Euros
Note: The total amount might not cover all your expenses!
Applications have to be submitted to the BIGS Neuroscience office via email (info@bigs-neuroscience.de). Please submit a single PDF file containing all the information and documents listed below. For details on the amount of your daily allowance, please contact the graduate school office directly.
What do I need to submit if I want to attend a conference or a hands-on methods course?
Eligibility:
– Graduate students who are members of BIGS Neuroscience at the time of the conferenceand in good standing on fulfilling the curriculum requirements.
What do I need to submit if I want to conduct a research stay abroad?
– One- to two-page summary of the PhD project for which the research stay is to be carried out.
– Letter of motivation from the applicant. Here it should be made clear at what stage the doctoral project is currently at and how the research stay will benefit the PhD project and the candidate.
– A letter of support from the thesis supervisor.
– One- to two-page CV of the applicant including training (reference to start of doctorate, awards and publications).
Eligibility:
– Graduate students who are members of BIGS Neuroscience at the time of the research stay and in good standing on fulfilling the curriculum requirements.
– During their membership in BIGS Neuroscience, BIGS PhD students may receive a maximum of one travel grant.
External sources for travel grants
Besides the BIGS Neuroscience travel grant you can apply for travel grants from various other sources. Here is a selection of other sources. Please check their websites for the valid application requirements and deadlines. To apply for a travel grant you need to follow the application procedures and fulfil the requirements of the respective provider. BIGS Neuroscience does not offer these grants.
Bonner Forum Biomedizin (BFB): The BFB aims to provide a suitable platform for the exchange of scientific knowledge between scientists with basic and medical research background. Financial support and resources are raised by the University of Bonn, the University Hospital of Bonn, and by the Ministry of Science of North Rhine-Westphalia. You can subscribe to the BFB newsletter in order to receive news from this platform.
Bonn Graduate Center (BGC): The Bonn Graduate Center supports doctoral researchers from the University of Bonn with funding for participation in international conferences
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): The DAAD supports active participation of scientists in congresses and lectures abroad with the congress and lecture journey program
