SPS 2009 Sponsors

Diamond
($15,000+)

Emerald
($10,000 to $14,999)

Ruby
($6,000 to $9,999)

Opal
($3,000 to $5,999)

Sapphire
(Up to $2,999)

Lewis B. Kinter & Terry Timberlake-Kinter

Junior/Student Travel Award

Application Extended Deadline: July 1, 2009

Purpose of the Program

To encourage and support world-wide representation at the SPS annual meeting of student and junior investigators (e.g., technicians, post-doctoral fellows and early career lab heads) engaged in safety pharmacology.

Eligibility

Jr. Travel Award: Eligible candidates include students (undergraduate or graduate), technical staff, and junior scientists, post-doctoral fellows (< 5 years), and European early career lab heads. The candidate should have less than 10 years experience in the field of safety pharmacology. Candidates may come from within academia, contract research organizations, pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, government or engaged in preclinical research in safety pharmacology.

Exclusion criteria include previous Jr. Travel Award winners, professors (undergraduate or graduate programs) and management personnel (e.g. laboratory head, principal investigator, or supervisor/mentor).

Student Travel Award: Eligible candidates include high school, undergraduate or graduate students. Exclusion criteria include previous Student Travel Award winners.

If for some reason the winner is unable to accept the award, they shall contact the Executive Director by August 15.

Award

The award shall consist of:

1. Up to $1500 reimbursement of reasonable travel expenses (receipts are required)
2. Complimentary registration for the Annual Meeting
3. Complimentary SPS membership for 1 year.
4. Winners are required to present a poster for the SPS meeting, attend the poster presentation and the Award announcement for ceremony.
   Note: the poster may also be entered in the Poster Contest.

NOTE—the poster may also be entered in the Junior Investigator Poster Contest with the submission of an abstract.

The awardees will be notified two weeks from the application deadline and the abstract will be published on the SPS Annual Meeting Web site. The Award is made to the individual and is not transferable (i.e., if the awardees cannot attend and sends the poster with a colleague, the colleague cannot claim the travel award).

Application

1. Application form and a summary paper describing the research (approximately 500 words) sent as an e-mail attachment. Note: Summary may be in abstract form, but needs to include: Introduction, Objective, Brief description of methods used, results/findings and conclusion.
2. Resumé or curriculum vitae sent as an e-mail attachment with item #1.
3. One letter from a Faculty member/Supervisor/Principal Investigator. Letters of recommendation/nomination should be signed and sent, mailed, electronically (e.g. PDF format sent as an e-mail attachment) or FAXed to the society.
4. All material should be sent to SPS Headquarters:
   E-mail: spshq@safetypharmacology.org
   Fax: (703) 438-3113
   Mailing Address: 1821 Michael Faraday Drive, Suite 300, Reston, VA 20190

Consideration of Nominees

Applications reviewed by the SPS Junior/Student Travel Award committee using a judging form and a 2-tier judging process.

1. Review by all judges blindly with ranking to develop a short list
2. Judging of the short list by the whole committee (teleconference)

Criteria for Selection of Junior Travel Award Winners

Presently there are up to six (6) Junior Travel Awards granted annually. Geographic: 1 from Africa-Europe, 1 from Americas, and 1 from Australia-Asia, and 1 additional from the continent hosting the meeting, 2 outstanding abstracts independent of geographic location.

Criteria for Selection of Student Travel Award Winners

Presently there are two (2) Student Travel Awards granted annually. Geographic. 1 from continent hosting the meeting and 1 from the a continent not hosting the meeting

Distribution of Travel Awards

Receipts collected by awardees; submitted to SPS for reimbursement
Note: Lunch during meeting is provided covered by the SPS

Awardees Responsibilities and Process at the Annual Meeting

1. Special poster location for winners, with special nametags and designation on posters
2. Winners agree to be at posters during poster contest judging
3. Posters to remain up the entire meeting
4. Award recognition at the SPS Annual Business Meeting

SPS Junior/Student Travel Award Committee

The chair of the committee will be appointed by the Board at the January board meeting. The chair forms up a committee of 5 to 7 SPS members. The committee members should come from different geographic regions and have different safety pharmacology backgrounds to be familiar with electrophysiology, cardiovascular, CNS, and respiratory research. The chair will present the committee to the board at the February Board meeting for Board approval.

The review of the abstracts, judging and selection of the winners will be made by the committee. The judging of the applicant materials will be done similar to the poster contest using evaluation forms (Appendix 2) and a 2 tier judging approach. The abstracts, with names and affiliations removed will be read by all judges, ranked, and an individual short list will be prepared. The whole committee will make the final decisions (teleconference). In the event that the candidate affiliation becomes known, it is assumed any committee member will disclose the affiliation or potential conflict of interest and exclude themselves from voting on that submission. In the event an abstract is so technical, or from a scientific field not represented on the committee, the committee may use experts as needed.

The Committee may refuse to review any abstract they determine to be not aligned with the objective of program.

Persons interested in serving on this committee will contact the Executive Director by January 15. SPS members will be encouraged to volunteer for this committee at Annual Meetings and on the annual meeting evaluation form.

List of Previous Winners