Call for Travel Awards

Four travel awards are available through the ISCE and its sister societies, the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology (ALAEQ), and the Asia-Pacific Association of Chemical Ecologists (APACE):

Student and Postdoc Travel Awards support the attendance of these researchers at the annual ISCE meeting.
The Bedoukian Applied Semiochemical Research Travel Award supports the attendance of one graduate student, postdoc, or early career researcher at the annual ISCE meeting.
ISCE Family Fund Travel Grants are available to offset costs of care for children who are accompanying ISCE meeting attendees.
ALAEQ and APACE Travel Awards are available to members of those societies for the purpose of attending and presenting at the annual ISCE meeting.
The ISCE Travel and Participation Award is available for ISCE members to attend meetings of ALAEQ and APACE.

Due Date: 15 April 2025.
Click here for information regarding the review process and conflicts of interest.

ISCE Student and Postdoc Travel Awards

Travel awards are granted annually to support the attendance of students and postdoctoral researchers at the ISCE meeting. These awards provide partial support toward the travel costs, and a one-year ISCE membership. Award winners will be notified before the meeting registration deadline. These awards are sponsored in part by generous donations from Bedoukian Research, Inc., Tofwerk AG, and Trécé, Inc. In recent years, the ISCE has awarded about 20 travel awards annually.

Eligibility:

Previous recipients of the ISCE Travel Award are not eligible.
The nominee must be an Undergraduate or Graduate student or Postdoctoral Researcher (within three years of receiving the Ph.D. degree).
Award winners must present an Oral or Poster Presentation at the ISCE meeting.
ISCE membership is not required.

Application Requirements:

Letter of application or nomination, including:
- Name, address, email, degrees awarded (including university, country, and year).
- Proposed travel budget, with quotes, if possible.
- Other sources of travel funds pending or already obtained.
- Applicant’s signature and date.
Curriculum vitae, including publications and presentations, and year of receipt of Ph.D. (for postdoctoral applicants).
Title and abstract of the presentation, max. 1500 characters (this is for review purposes only and is not considered a formal abstract submission as required by the meeting website). An abstract must also be submitted separately on the ISCE meeting website.
Letter of support from the applicant’s senior adviser. This letter may be submitted separately to maintain confidentiality.
If submitted by a nominator, the entire application must be submitted as a single PDF file. Applications submitted by the nominee may be submitted as two PDF files: (1) application and (2) letter from the adviser.
Applications and nominations should be submitted to the Chair of the Travel Awards committee: past.president (at) chemecol.org

Bedoukian Applied Semiochemical Research Travel Award

In 2019, the ISCE Executive Committee and Councilors ratified this new travel award. This $2,000 travel award is granted annually to support the attendance of a Graduate Student, Postdoctoral researcher or Early Career researcher at the ISCE meeting. This award is sponsored by a generous donation from Bedoukian Research, Inc.

Eligibility:

Previous recipients of the Bedoukian Applied Semiochemical Research Travel Award are not eligible.
The nominee must be a Graduate student or Early Career researcher (including postdoc; within 10 years after receiving the Ph.D.) that is currently conducting research in the field of applied chemical ecology.
Examples of applied semiochemical research: identification of pheromones of pests that are of economic importance, identification of other semiochemicals with clear implications for pest management, and field trials of semiochemicals (including mating disruption, attract and kill, semiochemical-based monitoring, innovative repellents, or similar approaches).
Award winners must present an Oral Presentation at the ISCE meeting.
ISCE membership is not required.

Application Requirements:

Letter of application or nomination, including:
- Name, address, email, degrees awarded (including university, country, and year).
- Statement summarizing qualifications for this award.
- Applicant’s signature and date.
Curriculum vitae, including publications and presentations, and year of receipt of Ph.D. (for postdoctoral and early career applicants).
Title and abstract of the presentation, max. 1500 characters (this is for review purposes only and is not considered a formal abstract submission as required by the meeting website). An abstract must also be submitted separately on the ISCE meeting website.
Letter of support from the applicant’s senior adviser. This letter may be submitted separately to maintain confidentiality.
If submitted by a nominator, the entire application must be submitted as a single PDF file. Applications submitted by the nominee may be submitted as two PDF files: (1) application and (2) letter from the adviser.
Applications and nominations should be submitted to the Chair of the Travel Awards committee: past.president (at) chemecol.org

ISCE Family Fund Travel Grant

The ISCE wishes to promote the participation of young chemical ecologists in our meetings, in this case through the partial support of members who struggle between early parenting and career development. To do this, we created the ISCE Family Fund Travel Grant.

For each annual meeting, we will offer three awards of USD $500 specifically allocated to offset childcare costs. Funds can be used to help cover additional travel expenses for an accompanying caregiver, or to cover expenses for local childcare in the vicinity of the meeting location. At this time, these are the expenses this grant can cover. We hope to be able to offer more flexibility on fund use in the future as the grant program grows.

Eligibility:

The applicant must be a current member of the ISCE and an ISCE member in the preceding calendar year.
The applicant cannot be a member of the executive committee of ISCE or a current councilor (see our conflict of interest policy).
The applicant must complete and submit the application using the Google form at the link below.

Application Requirements:

Please complete and submit the application using this Google form. Information shared on the form will be kept confidential and will be reviewed by a small committee overseen by the current ISCE Treasurer. Questions regarding the award should be addressed to the Treasurer.

ISCE-Sponsored ALAEQ and APACE Travel Awards

Nominations are open only to ALAEQ and APACE members.

ALAEQ meets in even years. The ISCE-sponsored ALAEQ awards of $2,500 will support one or more ALAEQ award winners to attend the following (odd year) ISCE meeting.
APACE meets in odd years. The ISCE-sponsored APACE awards of $2,500 will support one or more APACE award winners to attend the following (even year) ISCE meeting.
ALAEQ and APACE are encouraged to cost-share in these awards.

Eligibility:

Previous recipients of the ISCE-sponsored ALAEQ and APACE Travel Award are not eligible.
Any current Ph.D. student, postdoc or early career member of either ALAEQ or APACE is eligible to be considered by their respective society for this award.
Award recipients will be expected to become ISCE members before the ISCE conference they will attend.
Award recipients must present an Oral or Poster presentation at the ISCE meeting.

Application Requirements:

ALAEQ and APACE will develop their own mechanisms for screening nominations. This may include a presentation award competition at their respective meetings, or a call for nominations, or any other mechanism that effectively identifies deserving award recipients based on demonstrated excellence and potential for future excellence of contributions. One or more award recipients may be supported. For example, multiple awards may be made when the ISCE meeting is close to the APACE or ALAEQ regions and travel expenses are lower than usual.
The Presidents of ALAEQ and APACE, or their designees, will submit the names of the award winners to the ISCE Chair of the Travel Awards committee: past.president (at) chemecol.org. The deadline for submission will be the same as the deadline for general submission of ISCE Student Travel awards (see top of the page).
To ensure transparency and high quality, ALAEQ and APACE will submit to ISCE all the materials required in their respective competition, submitted electronically as a single PDF file.

ISCE Travel and Participation Award

Nominations originate from the ALAEQ and APACE Executive Committees.

In 2019, the ISCE Executive Committee and Councilors ratified these new travel awards to strengthen ties between ISCE, the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology (ALAEQ), and the Asia-Pacific Association of Chemical Ecologists (APACE). This travel award will be awarded to an ISCE scientist to attend either an ALAEQ or APACE meeting. The objective is for the ISCE member to present a talk, interact with ALAEQ or APACE, participate in forums, and often represent the ISCE. This award will bring leading chemical ecologists from the ISCE in contact with ALAEQ and APACE students and researchers they might not normally interact with at the ISCE meeting. This award complements the goals of the ISCE-Sponsored ALAEQ and APACE Travel Awards and ISCE Student/Postdoc Travel Awards, but with potentially wider reach. The ISCE has committed $1,500 per year for these travel awards, as follows:

ALAEQ meets in even years. The ALAEQ President may request this ISCE award of $1,500 in preparation for the next ALAEQ meeting, to support the travel of an ISCE member to the ALAEQ meeting.
APACE meets in odd years. The APACE President may request this ISCE award of $1,500 in preparation for the next APACE meeting, to support the travel of an ISCE member to the APACE meeting.
ALAEQ and APACE are encouraged to cost-share in this award.

Eligibility:

Previous recipients of the ISCE Travel and Participation Award are not eligible.
Only ISCE members are eligible for these awards.
Award recipients must present an oral presentation at the ALAEQ or APACE meeting.
To forge better collaborations among the three associations, ALAEQ and APACE are encouraged to invite members of the ISCE Executive Committee and Councilors. These individuals represent a broad cross-section of ISCE volunteers who are also in the best position to discuss governance issues and assess the effectiveness of this initiative. This mechanism also provides an incentive for volunteering to serve the ISCE.

Application Requirements:

The ALAEQ and APACE Executive Committees, together with meeting organizers, will identify deserving award recipients based on demonstrated excellence in chemical ecology and service to ISCE.
The Presidents of ALAEQ and APACE, or their designees, will submit the name of the award winner to the ISCE President: president (at) chemecol.org. The ISCE President will confer with the Executive Committee to assure eligibility and diversity.
There is no deadline for requesting this award, but the request obviously needs to consider ALAEQ and APACE deadlines for registration and abstract submission.

Review Process

Student, Postdoc and Early Career Travel Award applications are reviewed by the ISCE Past President for eligibility. Award winners are selected by a vote of the awards committee, which consists of members of the ISCE Executive Committee and ISCE Councilors.

ISCE-Sponsored ALAEQ and APACE Travel Awards (students/postdocs/early career) and ISCE Travel and Participation Award (Early Career and established scientists) are reviewed and selected by ALAEQ and APACE through review procedures established by these associations.

Conflicts of Interest:

The success of the ISCE Executive Committee (EC) and Councilors in performing their functions as award panelists (Silver, Silverstein-Simeone, Early Career, Travel awards, Presentation awards) depends on the effectiveness, evenhandedness, and transparency of their decision-making processes. The decision-making process may be compromised, or appear to be biased, if conflicts of interest (COIs) are not declared. Toward the goal of recognizing, declaring, and avoiding COIs, the EC has adopted the following set of rules to guide award nominations and their review:

Current ISCE Executive Committee members and Councilors are not eligible for any of the ISCE Awards and ISCE Travel Awards.
Specific to the ISCE Travel and Participation Awards: The ISCE Vice President, President, and Past-President, in office in 2019 when these awards were ratified, will not be eligible for this award until they leave office. Incoming Executive Committee members and all Councilors are eligible to participate in this initiative.
Members of the EC and Councilors who nominate or write letters of support for Travel Award nominees will declare COI and recuse themselves from reviewing that specific nomination.
Examples of COI for EC members and Councilors as panelists, that normally should lead to recusal:
- personal, family, or business relationship with the nominee;
- served as the nominee’s Ph.D. or postdoc advisor;
- organizational affiliation with the nominee in the last 12 months;
- served as nominator or letter of support writer for the nominee.

The ISCE membership is relatively small and highly collaborative. Therefore, some COI rules that usually guide larger organizations (e.g., co-authorship on books or articles; collaboration on projects, such as funded grants) are not considered COI by the ISCE. Nevertheless, the ISCE encourages EC members and Councilors to be mindful of the appearance of COI.