Apply for training grants for early career researchers
With international travel harder than ever, and most scientific – and personal – interactions moving online, the Nature Communications journals have adapted our grant scheme for Early Career Researchers to fit these challenging times.
Written by Joe Aslin, Associate Editor for Communications Earth & Environment, Nature
The Communications journals (Communications Biology, Communications Chemistry, Communications Earth & Environment, Communications Materials and Communications Physics) have, for the past two years, offered travel grants for promising early career researchers to attend conferences for which they would otherwise lack the funding. Of course, the current COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions on international travel have seen scientific meetings and workshops around the world re-organise as online-only events.
With travel grants now effectively useless, but support for the careers of young researchers more important than ever, the Communications journals have re-thought our early career grants scheme for 2020. We are now accepting applications for training grants to help early career researchers attend online training courses or workshops. If the event is actually being held in a physical location then these grants can of course still be used for that.
Unlike previous years, where a single grant of €1,500 was awarded per journal, this year each title will be awarding multiple grants of up to €500 to cover the cost of registration on a training course, workshop or meeting of the applicant’s choice happening anytime during 2021.
To apply you must be:
- a PhD student or a postdoc within 5 years of completion of your PhD
- conducting research in one of the fields covered by the Communications journals and
- able to demonstrate that you have no other funds available to attend the course or workshop.
Full eligibility criteria can be found on our guidelines for applicants.
The deadline for applications is 26th October 2020 and the winners will be announced in early December. If you think you could make use of this grant, we encourage you to apply. If you know of someone else who may be eligible then please let them know and spread the word!
This is a very tough time for early career researchers but we hope these grants can go some way to helping keep the next wave of promising scientists learning their trade, developing their skills and interacting with their communities.
About Joe Aslin:
Joe joined Communications Earth & Environment in January 2020 and has a background in tectonics and structural geology.
His doctoral research at the University of Liverpool focused on the physical and chemical processes which influence deformation in mid-crustal fault and shear zones using a combination of field and laboratory techniques. Prior to that, Joe used U-Pb geochronology to investigate the uplift and tectonic history of the central Andes during his MSci research at the University of Bristol. Joe is based in the London office.
