Following the recommendations of the UNU-BIOLAC International Advisory Committee, we are pleased to announce our Travel Grants Competitive Call for the second semester of 2024. Applicants should be active graduate students, or Biotechnology researchers prepared and committed to performing an advanced, high-quality activity related to Biotechnology sensu stricto.
UNU-BIOLAC encourages fellow candidates to delve into the many facets of Biotechnology to solve scientific problems or generate biotechnological solutions/products derived from basic or applied research.
Our Programme manages limited resources, which oblige us to exert careful and thoughtful selection of the best candidates, for us to support the potentially best biotechnologists of our region who thus will be able to promote Biotechnology as a tool of social change, scientific advancement, and professional and personal growth in alignment with every Sustainable Development Goal. We expect that our selected fellows will multiply the fruits of this support through a transferring-by-education activity related to the newly acquired knowledge or capability derived from participating in the financed undertaking.
IMPORTANT: For the work developed at BIOLAC or promoted elsewhere by the Programme, Biotechnology can be defined as the field of applied knowledge that arises from the intersection between basic biological sciences and technical and technological innovations to use organisms, their parts or their native processes to create something new that fulfil the previously perceived need that stimulated its creation. Biotechnology can give rise to a tool that, employed later, can be used to produce a good or service, or it can directly be one of the latter two.
Generally, modern Biotechnology also requires applying scientific knowledge to understand why the processes and organisms it creates work the way they do. Almost always, Biotechnology opens doors to improve itself or create a novelty capable and prone to originate additional ones.
Therefore, biotechnology requires living organisms, their parts or processes– together with the intention and knowledge of factual evidence that gives the entire process a truly creative nature– to give reality a novelty that could not occur or arise without human intervention.
Some examples of what Biotechnology is not:
Traditional Agriculture or Animal Husbandry and related fields
Basic sciences
Religious beliefs, political activism, or any kind of coaching disguised as science
Alternative paradigms that rely on the use of rituals, stones, animals, or other elements of the natural world with the intent of manipulating the perception and/or interpretation of reality
For a helpful discussion on the matter, you might like to visit https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bmb.2004.494032040375, where the following article (and access to many others) is granted:
Dahms, A.S. (2004), Biotechnology: What it is, what it is not, and the challenges in reaching a national or global consensus. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ., 32: 271-278. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.2004.494032040375
The grant will cover round-trip flight tickets for LAC citizens travelling to and from LAC, to North America or Europe in economy class only.
No stipends for daily allowances or accommodation will be given. The applicant must demonstrate how he/she will cover those costs plus travel insurance before receiving the travel grant.
We would prefer: 1) applications for event attendance as participants or trainees more than simple listeners AND 2) waiving fees to the grant applicant. Applications for travel grants involving non-BIOLAC-funded internships (round-trip) or a return to LAC after finishing Biotechnology-related long studies abroad (one-way ticket) might also be considered.
These grants cannot be applied to by grantees of our fellowships or those interested in attending UNU-BIOLAC-supported courses or workshops.
Application Process
All applicants should download and complete all mandatory documentation and submit it with the application form to applications.biolac@unu.edu. The email must contain the following information:
Email Subject: “Travel Grant_your name_2024”
In the body of the e-mail, explain where you plan to go, your itinerary, and why you are applying for the grant aimed at supporting events or activities directly related to biotechnology exclusively. Additionally, attach to the e-mail:
Letter of acceptance to the event or internship or a certificate of the culmination of studies issued no longer than two months after completion.
Applicant's CV
Proof of additional funding for accommodation, insurance and other expenses.
Working Plan for the Transferring-by-Education activity associated to this support (free format)
After the end of the activity, proof of travel and culmination of the activity should be sent to the email above.
The application deadline is 31 March 2024.
Disclaimer
UNU-BIOLAC is an equal-opportunity institution. No applicant for our academic or research activities shall be discriminated against in any term or condition because of gender, race, colour, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, sex or sexual orientation.
