Published on: 24-04-2018
Dear TIAFT Members,
Believe it or not, we are just a few months from our next annual TIAFT Conference. This year’s meeting will be in Ghent, Belgium and our hosts, Sarah Wille and Christophe Stove, are working very hard to make this another memorable TIAFT experience.
One of the key benefits for our members comes through the educational opportunities offered in these annual TIAFT conferences. They provide us all with excellent opportunities to network and learn from each other. But, for some, it is nearly impossible to attend the annual conference for financial reasons.
Therefore, TIAFT provides a limited number of travel grants to assist both Standard and Developing Country Fund (DCF) members to attend the annual meetings. They are awarded to applicants who are actively working in the field of forensic toxicology that can demonstrate the need for financial assistance, have an accepted high-quality abstract for the annual meeting, and agree to certain requirements for receiving the grant (e.g., submission of an article to the TIAFT Bulletin). The deadline for submission of 2018 TIAFT Travel Grants is May 9, 2018. So the clock is ticking if you would like to apply!
Annual TIAFT Travel Grants are a maximum of 2,000 US dollars PLUS the registration fee for the conference. The grants are to cover the most cost-effective direct travel to and from the annual meeting, as well as the cost of economical accommodation for the night prior to the first day of the annual meeting through the night of the farewell banquet. The grant is not to be used to cover the cost of meals, miscellaneous personal expenses, accompanying persons, or pre-/post- conference tours.
Additionally, with the exception of the meeting registration fee (which is paid directly by TIAFT), the TIAFT Travel Grants serve as reimbursements of travel and lodging expenses and not prepayments of such.
The TIAFT Board will evaluate all applications during its next Board Meeting in mid-May. For those interested, the following are the areas evaluated during the Board’s review of the applications:
- Is the application complete?
- Has the applicant been a TIAFT member for at least one full year?
- Has the applicant received previous travel grants?
- Has the applicant submitted an abstract to the annual meeting and has it been accepted? What is the quality of the abstract?
- How long has the applicant worked in the field?
- Has the applicant attended and presented and any previous meetings (not just TIAFT meetings)?
- Has the applicant demonstrated a true financial need?
- Has the applicant made a reasonable estimate of the anticipated expenses?
The full evaluation criteria are defined in the Guidelines for TIAFT Travel Grants that can be downloaded from the Documents Section of the Members Only area of the TIAFT website.
As I hope you see, the TIAFT Board tries to ensure that the most deserving members receive the limited number of travel grants that are available each year.
So if you feel you qualify for a 2018 Travel Grant, please do not miss the May 9 th deadline!
Marc LeBeau, PhD
President, TIAFT