We are currently not taking applications for the Tilly Edinger Travel Grant. We are fundraising for future cycles.

This travel grant is designed to help offset the cost of student and avocational/amateur scientists’ travel by paying for in-person or virtual conference expenses up front, rather than through a reimbursement system. Unlike most other travel grants, this grant does not require that attendees present original work at a conference.  Our hope is this grant helps to increase accessibility to conferences to those who are most in need of resources. Learn more about previous awardees on our Travel With Tilly Archive.

The Tilly Edinger Travel Grant differs from most other travel grants by:

• Students and avocational/amateur scientists can apply
• The grant pays for registration costs up front
• All attendees are eligible, no need to submit an abstract 
• Applications are ranked to prioritize support for applicants belonging to groups underrepresented in the geosciences

Tilly Edinger was a paleontologist who faced great obstacles and contributed greatly to the field. We hope to honor Tilly and her work by promoting and elevating the work of early career scientist. To learn more about Tilly, her obstacles, and work click here.

We strongly encourage folks who identify as belonging to historically marginalized groups, women, and non-traditional students or paleontologists/paleoceanographers.

2020 was the inaugural year for the Tilly Edinger Travel Grant. This grant is still a pilot program, we are restricting the funding to registration and abstract fees only. Future iterations will be evaluated on an annual basis with the hope to expand funding.

If  you want to donate to Time Scavengers and/or the Tilly Edinger Travel Grant, please note that Time Scavengers is registered a non-profit organization, so donations made to the site or travel grant are tax deductible. 

Eligibility

This award provided by Time Scavengers through the generous contributions from our community members and donors helps support student (enrolled undergraduates, MS/PhD) and avocational scientists’ travel to conference.  Applicants do not have to present original research at the conference to be eligible for the grant, however, they must be researchers in, involved with, or representing and interested in paleo-related sciences (including but not limited to paleontology, paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, macroevolution, and paleobiogeography). Preference will be given to applicants with a lack of funding and travel support. If you are unsure if your interests count as paleo-related, please reach out to us at TETGTimeScavengers@gmail.com.

Examples of conferences we fund include but are not limited to: Geological Society of America (national and regional), American Geophysical Union, Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists, Goldschmidt, Evolution, Ocean Science, Western Society of Naturalists, Ecological Society of America, North American Paleontological Conference, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, International Palaeontological Congress, Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, and FORAMS.

At this time the Tilly Edinger Travel Grant can only support conference registration and/or abstract fees. Grant amounts will vary depending on need and conference expenses. Please see our evaluation rubric here.

How to Apply

Applicants should answer the following questions and include the following information in no more than 1 page (12 point font, 1 inch margins):

1. Name:
2. Pronouns:
3. If you are comfortable doing so, please disclose any (underrepresented) identities you hold (including but not limited to race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, single parent/primary caregiver, veteran, from a low-income background, neurodiverse, person with a disability, first generation academic, immigration status): 
4. Degree you are working towards (or ‘avocational’ if applicable), and affiliation:
5. Conference you are attending:
6. Conference’s registration deadline:
7. Conference’s registration amount and funds requested:
8. Name of poster/talk (if applicable; otherwise, include N/A):
9. What is your primary subject of interest (e.g., Cenozoic paleoceanography)?
10. Would you be able to attend this conference without this financial support? 
11. Why would you like to attend this conference? (No more than 200 words)
12. Is there anything else you’d like us to know not covered by the above questions? If not, leave blank.

Please submit your application as a PDF file with the naming format “LastName_TSGrant_Year” (for example, Bauer_TSGrant_2020) to TETGTimeScavengers@gmail.com, with Tilly Edinger Travel Grant as the email subject. 

Copy and paste the above questions into a word processor of your choosing or use the following template that can be viewed and downloaded here. 

Requirements

Upon receiving the Tilly Edinger Travel Grant, recipients are asked to write two blogs for Time Scavengers which will be featured on the website:

1. A ‘Meet the Scientist’ post about yourself, your science and/or outreach activities; and
2. A post outlining your conference experience.

Additionally, recipients will be required to respond to an anonymized survey but will have the option to not answer questions. These data will not be examined by the review committee for at least 1 year and will be utilized for future Time Scavengers efforts (e.g. NSF funding proposals).

We ask that you acknowledge Time Scavengers on any posters and talks presented at the conference (you can download a .png file for use in posters and talks here).