Applications are due by October 23 to be considered for 2016 grant award.
The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is currently accepting applications to be considered for the Society’s new Graduate Education Fellowship Grant Program, which supports graduate students looking to pursue a career in the life sciences. Applications from qualifying educational institutions, on behalf of specific graduate students, received by the October 23, 2015 deadline will vie to be awarded up to $50,000 per year (for a maximum of two years). The first recipient of this grant program will be announced in April 2016. Program details and a link to the application can be found on the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant web page.
Applications must be made by qualifying educational institutions that offer graduate programs related to quantitative biosciences or life sciences research and development. Student candidates are not eligible to apply for these Grants directly. Rather, the application must come from the candidate Student’s academic institution. Students can facilitate the effort by coordinating the application process with their Primary Research Investigator and/or academic mentor from their educational institution. Details for both institutions and prospective applicant students can be found on the SLAS Web site.
Originally announced by SLAS President Dean Ho at SLAS2015 in February in Washington, DC, the new grant program was established with $1 million in seed funding by SLAS. “Education has always been a cornerstone of SLAS’s purpose, and one of the most powerful things that we do,” says Ho. “Implementing this fund takes our support of scientific education, innovation and careers to the next level. As a global Society, we are committed to fostering continued scientific innovation and cultivating the next generation of professionals who will drive that innovation, which will ultimately result in better, more accurate research.”
The SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant Program is administered under the SLAS Education Fellowship Grant Review Panel and the SLAS Awards and Grants Advisory Committee. Applications will be evaluated from three different perspectives: quality of the applicant student, quality of the student’s mentor, and quality of the applicant educational institution. Judging criteria will consider alignment with the SLAS mission, the caliber and track record of the institution, qualifications and achievements of the student, creativity of the proposed research, and other variables. Additional details can be found on the Grant Program web page.
“SLAS has always done a great job of bringing graduate students and young people into the organization to assist in their development into outstanding scientists and technologists,” said Susan M. Lunte, Ph.D., University of Kansas, and chair of the SLAS Education Fellowship Grant Review Panel. “With this fellowship, we’re looking to provide an opportunity for the best of the best – those scientists doing exciting, state-of-the-art work who will be leaders in the field as they move forward in their careers.”
The $1 million with which SLAS is seeding this new program is in addition to the more than $150,000 the Society allocates annually to underwrite student programs and participation at the annual SLAS International Conference and Exhibition by way of the Tony B. Academic Scholarship Program, student-focused programming, discounted memberships and journal access, career services and related skills development. In order to sustain and expand the SLAS Educational Fund, the Society intends to conduct future fundraising initiatives among SLAS members and the industries SLAS serves.
For more information about the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Program SLAS, including deadlines, applicant tips, and a link to the application, visit the Grant Program web page.
Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS)
www.SLAS.org
