AWM Travel Grants

Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM).

Travel Grants for Women Researchers - Deadlines February 1, May 1 and October 1 each year. Application deadline is May 1, 2009.
Mentoring Travel Grants for Women - Deadline is February 1 each year.

Application deadline is February 1, 2009.

Advice for Travel Grant Applicants
Previous Recipients of AWM Travel Grants

Travel Grants

The objective of the NSF-AWM Travel Grants program is to enable women to attend research conferences in their fields, thereby providing a valuable opportunity to advance their research activities and their visibility in the research community. By having more women attend such meetings, we also increase the size of the pool from which speakers at subsequent meetings may be drawn and thus address the persistent problem of the absence of women speakers at some research conferences.

Travel Grants:
(a)The Mathematics Travel Grants provide full or partial support for travel and subsistence for a meeting or conference in the applicant's field of specialization. A maximum of $1,500 for domestic travel and of $2,000 for foreign travel will be available. For foreign travel, U.S. air carriers must be used (exceptions only per federal grant regulations; prior AWM approval required).

(b) The Mathematics Education Research Travel grants provide full or partial support for travel and subsistence in math/math education research, for:

mathematicians attending a math education research conference or

math education researchers attending a math conference.

(Please note that a mathematics education researcher attending a mathematics education research conference would not be eligible for this grant.)

A maximum of $1,500 for domestic travel and $2,000 for foreign travel will be available. For foreign travel, U.S. air carriers must be used (exceptions only per federal grant regulations; prior AWM approval required).

Eligibility: These travel funds are provided by the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) and the Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication (REC) of the NSF. The conference or the applicant's research must be in an area supported by DMS. Applicants must be women holding a doctorate (or equivalent experience) and with a work address in the USA (or home address, in case of unemployed mathematicians). Anyone who has been awarded an AWM-NSF travel grant in the past two years is ineligible. Anyone receiving external governmental funds which includes significant funding (more than $2,000 yearly) for travel is ineligible. Partial travel support from the applicant's institution or from a non-governmental agency does not, however, make the applicant ineligible.

Target Dates: There will be three award periods per year, with applications due February 1, May 1, and October 1.
Effective September 15, 2006, all applications must be submitted online via the web-based application system which is accessible at AWM/NSF application. The application requirements and a complete step-by-step process are available on the online site. If you have not already done so you must first create a user account – this will be the first screen when you access the site. During the application process you will be asked to attach one PDF file that includes your proposal, CV and current and pending funding (indicate if you do or do not have current and pending funding). If you have a speaker confirmation letter or e-mail notification, we do ask that you scan the document as an electronic file so you can attach as a PDF.
In addition, please complete the application pre-survey administered by an independent evaluator.
As this is a new online system for all applicants, please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer Lewis at 703-934-0163, ext. 213 for guidance.

The grant application deadline is firm: 11:59 pm, Eastern, May 1, 2009.

Mentoring Travel Grants for Women

The objective of the NSF-AWM Mentoring Travel Grants is to help junior women to develop a long term working and mentoring relationship with a senior mathematician. This relationship should help the junior mathematician to establish her research program and eventually receive tenure. AWM expects to award up to seven grants, in amounts up to $5,000 each. Each grant would fund travel, accomodations, and other required expenses for an untenured woman mathematician to travel to an institute or a department to do research with a specified individual for one month. Awardees may request to use any unexpended funds for further travel to work with the same individual during the following year. In such cases, a formal request must be submitted by the following February 1 to the selection committee or funds will be released for re-allocation. (Applicants for mentoring travel grants may in exceptional cases receive up to two such grants throughout their careers, possibly in successive years; each such grant would require a new proposal and would go through the usual competition.) For foreign travel, U.S. air carriers must be used (exceptions only per federal grant regulations; prior AWM approval required).

Eligibility: Applicants must be women holding a doctorate or equivalent experience and with a work address in the USA (or home address if unemployed). The applicant's research must be in a field which is supported by the Division of Mathematical Sciences of the National Science Foundation.

Effective September 15, 2006, all applications must be submitted via the web-based application system which is accessible at AWM/NSF application. The application requirements and a complete step-by-step process are available on the online site. If you have not already done so you must first create a user account – this will be the first screen when you access the site. During the application process you will be asked to attach one PDF file that includes your proposal, CV and current and pending funding, if applicable. In a second step you will be asked to attach one PDF file that includes the proposed mentor’s letter of support and CV.

a curriculum vita;
a research proposal (approximately five pages in length) which specifies why the proposed travel would be particularly beneficial;
a supporting letter from the proposed mentor (who must indicate his/her availability at the proposed travel time), together with the curriculum vita of the proposed mentor;
a proposed budget; and
information about other sources of funding available to the applicant.

As this is a new online system for all applicants, please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer Lewis at 703-934-0163, ext. 213 for guidance.

In addition, please complete the application pre-survey administered by an independent evaluator. A final report will be required from each awardee. All awards will be determined on a competitive basis by a selection panel consisting of distinguished mathematicians appointed by the AWM.

Questions? Call 703-934-0163 or e-mail awm@awm-math.org.

Next Mentoring Travel Grant Deadline: 11:59 pm, Eastern, February 1, 2009

Advice for Travel Grant Applicants

The Association for Women in Mathematics has administered the NSF-AWM Travel Grant Program for Women since 1988, supporting both travel to domestic or foreign research conferences and, more recently, longer-term visits with a mentor. The Program continues to attract applicants of exceptional quality, and it is always the case that many deserving applicants cannot be funded. On average, only a third of those applying can be supported.

Several years ago, a selection committee provided some advice to applicants through the AWM newsletter. We felt that with the mentoring program now in place, we should update this advice. In many respects, of course, the factors affecting funding decisions have not changed.

The purpose of the travel grants is to enhance the research activities of women mathematicians and increase their visibility in various research venues.

The research proposal is important. The research itself should be of high quality, and the proposal should give a clear, concise explanation of results, reasonably understandable to a lay mathematician. In what way did your work go beyond what was known? What are the connections to and implications for other results or open questions?

If you are applying for a conference travel grant: What are the expected benefits of attending the conference? Who are the major speakers? How close is the conference to your research area? Will there be opportunities to discuss mathematics, and are there specific people with whom you expect to confer? Are you giving a talk, or does the nature of the conference preclude that?

If you are applying for a mentoring travel grant: Is the proposed mentor appropriate (a senior mathematician with an established research record in your research area)? Have you already established a preliminary working relationship? How enthusiastic is the mentor about the proposed visit?

You should provide a detailed and realistic budget, with information on the most economical fares (on U.S. carriers), etc. State clearly any other sources of funding- any sort of personal grant from a federal agency is likely to make you ineligible, but partial support from your institution is allowed. Don't pad your budget in an attempt to reach the maximum allowed level of funding or under the assumption it will automatically be cut. Decisions on the level of funding provided to successful applicants are based both on funds available to the panel and on our evaluation of whether the level requested was appropriate.

Beverly Diamond, College of Charleston, SC