The first recipients of the eLife Travel Grants 2020 have been selected. Benjamin Griffiths, Dr. Ines Hahn, Dr. Katarzyna Knop, Nicanor Gonzalez Morales, Hernán Andrés Morales-Navarrete and Robert Todd will each receive up to $1,000 to present their work at a scientific meeting.
In light of conference cancellations and postponements to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the awardees who are not able to participate in the meeting where they were accepted to present a talk or poster will be able to defer the financial support until their next opportunity to present in person. In the meantime, both Robert Todd and Hernán Andrés Morales-Navarrete feature in the current Online Research Talks series hosted by eLife, and the opportunity to present work online remains open to all other awardees.
Benjamin Griffiths is a postdoctoral researcher at Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Germany. Benjamin works on the role of neocortical alpha oscillations and hippocampal oscillations in the encoding and retrieval of episodic memories (eLife 2019;8:e49562). They plan to present work as part of an accepted symposium titled 'Synchronised Brain Rhythms – Coordinated Mind' at the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience Annual Scientific Meeting 2020 in Brighton, UK, in September.
Dr. Ines Hahn is an independent early-career research fellow at University of Manchester, UK. Ines is due to travel to ASCB/EMBO Cell Bio 2020 in Philadelphia, USA, in December, to present work from her group on the coordination of microtubule dynamics in axons (eLife 2019;8:e50319).
Dr. Katarzyna Knop is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Dundee, UK. Katarzyna planned to present their work on mRNA processing and m6A modification in Arabidopsis thaliana (eLife 2020;9:e49658) at RNA 2020 in Vancouver, Canada, at the end of May. In-person attendance for this conference has been cancelled – we understand talks will proceed online instead.
Nicanor Gonzalez Morales is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, where they research how myofibrils are maintained at a constant diameter (eLife 2019;8:e50496). Nicanor plans to travel to Prague, Czech Republic, in September to present their work at the European Muscle Conference (EMC) 2020.
Hernán Andrés Morales-Navarrete is a junior investigator at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador. Hernán investigates the processes underlying the structural organisation of liver tissue using computational and theoretical methods (eLife 2019;8:e44860). They were due to present their work at the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology Conference (BioSB) 2020 in Lunteren, the Netherlands, this April – this conference has been postponed to October 2020. In the meantime, Hernán will present their work online on April 16 as part of eLife’s Online Research Talks (register now).
Robert (Rob) Todd is a PhD student at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, where they research the effects of antifungal drugs on genetic diversity in Candida albicans (eLife 2019;8:e45954). They were due to present their work at the Candida and Candidiasis 2020 meeting by the Microbiology Society, which has been postponed. In the meantime, Rob presented their talk online on April 9 as part of eLife’s Online Research Talks (watch back).
The first round of the 2020 travel awards were judged by Anna Akhmanova, Tim Behrens and Detlef Weigel, all Deputy Editors at eLife.
The travel awards are open to early-career researchers who have published a paper in eLife. The awards remain open to applications, with the next deadline on May 31.
With the changes we have made to the travel awards process in light of COVID-19, we have been guided by the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group and their recommendations for how to mitigate the impact of meeting cancellations on researchers. We may adapt what we do to ensure we continue to support early-career researchers (ECRs) to share their latest work in whatever way is most meaningful under the current circumstances. Subscribe to the eLife ECR newsletter to learn of any updates to the travel awards process as well as any new opportunities to share work virtually.
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