program Description

Enabling women mathematicians to attend conferences in their fields provides them a valuable opportunity to advance their research activities and their visibility in the research community. Having more women attend such meetings also increases the size of the pool from which speakers at subsequent meetings may be drawn and thus addresses the persistent problem of the absence of women speakers at some research conferences. The Mathematics Travel Grants provide full or partial support for travel and subsistence for a meeting or conference in the applicant’s field of specialization.

Selection Procedure.
All awards will be determined on a competitive basis by a selection panel consisting of distinguished mathematicians appointed by the AWM. A maximum of $2,500 for domestic travel and of $3,500 for foreign travel will be funded. Funding will be considered for travel that will take place at least 2 months after and within 11 months of the application deadline.

Eligibility.
The conference or the applicant’s research must be in one of the mathematical sciences programs supported by the U.S. National Sciences Foundation. Click here for the list of research areas supported by NSF/DMS.  Applicants should be women holding a doctorate (or equivalent) and with a work address in the USA (or home address, in the case of unemployed applicants). PhD students expecting to graduate within a year are also eligible, provided they supply a letter from their PhD advisor. Anyone who has been awarded an AWM travel grant in the past two years is ineligible. Preference will be given to those receiving less than $2000 yearly in external funding for travel.

Application Packet: An application packet should include:

• Research Proposal. The research itself should be of high quality, and the proposal should give a clear, concise explanation of results, reasonably understandable to a lay mathematician. The proposal should be two to three pages in length (references are not included in page limit) and should address the following:
  • In what way did your work go beyond what was known?
  • What are the connections to (and implications for) other results or open questions?
  • What are the expected benefits of attending the conference?
  • Who are the major speakers at the conference that are related to your field?
  • How relevant is the conference to your research area?
  • Will there be opportunities to discuss mathematics, and are there specific people with whom you expect to confer? Are you giving a talk, or does the nature of the conference preclude that?

  Learn more about the Criteria and Rating form used by the reviewers of the Travel Grant.

• CV. A curriculum vitae in the format of the NSF biosketch;
• Budget. You should provide a detailed and realistic proposed budget which must be a separate page in your application in addition to filling in the amounts in the required fields online;
• Current or Pending Funding. Please describe the current or pending funding available to the applicant.
• Statement on  Funding. Indicate if you (do/do not) have current or pending NSF funding by including exactly one of the following statements on your proposal:

1. NO, I do not have an NSF grant, other institutional grant, or “current and pending funding” support that provides travel funds which could be used to fund the travel as outlined in my proposal.
2. YES, I do have an NSF grant, other institutional grant, or “current and pending funding” support that provides travel funds which could be used to fund the travel as outlined in my proposal. (Please describe the “current and pending” travel support. Indicate the source of the funding and the amount and relevant time period related to when the funds may be used.)

• Attachments.
  • Travel Grants. If you have a speaker confirmation letter or e-mail notification, we ask that you scan the document as an electronic file so you can attach it as a PDF file.
  • Graduate Students. A letter from your thesis advisor indicating your expected graduation date and a brief description of your work should be attached as a PDF file.

For further guidance click here for the Criteria and Rating form used by the reviewers.

All submitted materials become the property of the AWM.