AAI Minority Scientist Award

Download 2023 Reimbursement POLICY & Form

This award provides travel support to eligible underrepresented minority (URM) scientists, including trainees and early-career faculty members.

Awardees will receive $1,250 to defray expenses associated with attending the AAI annual meeting. Award checks will be mailed to recipients following the AAI annual meeting, provided that the following conditions are met:

  • Attendance at the meeting is mandatory.
  • U.S.-based awardees must submit a completed W9 form to receive the award check. Awardees will be provided instructions for submitting their forms through a secure portal.
  • Awardees must make their reservations through the official AAI hotel reservation system onPeak and stay at one of the AAI-designated hotels to receive their award checks.
In most cases this award may not be combined with other awards or grants for the AAI annual meeting; trainee recipients may receive the AAI Trainee Abstract Award or AAI Trainee Poster Award, but the maximum funding under the Minority Scientist Travel Award will be reduced commensurately.

Eligibility

To be eligible, an applicant must be all of the following:

  1. An underrepresented minority scientist.* Qualified minority groups underrepresented in the biomedical sciences include: African Americans, Alaskan Natives, Hispanic Americans, Latinos, Native Americans (specify tribal affiliation), and Natives of the U.S. Pacific Islands (Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa).
  2. An AAI Regular, Associate, or Trainee member paid through the end of 2024 at the time of application submission.
  3. A graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, or early career faculty (assistant professor or equivalent).

Applicants are not required to be an author on an abstract submitted to the AAI meeting; however, preference will be given to those who are.

* Scientists from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis.

Application Instructions

Please submit award application by logging into your AAI member account, choosing Award Application in the Member Services menu, and selecting Apply Now for the applicable award in the award list. All documents should be uploaded as a single combined PDF file with a file name of less than 25 characters. Please be aware that the single, combined PDF must be no larger than 20MB. Packages that are not complete will not be considered.

Please include the following in the application package:

  1. A cover letter (not to exceed two (2) pages) clearly designating “AAI Minority Scientist Award” and including the following information:
    • Full name (first, middle initial, last)
    • Title and affiliation
    • Current mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address
    • A brief statement of applicant’s research goals
    • Underrepresented minority group of which applicant is a member
    • Title(s) and ID number(s) of abstract(s) submitted to IMMUNOLOGY2024™, or state “NO ABSTRACT SUBMITTED”
  2. Applicant’s curriculum vitae, including current funding and past AAI awards (NIH Biosketch style)
  3. A completed Funding Confirmation Form (PDF) signed by Department Chair or Dean (Trainee members must submit a Funding Confirmation Form completed by their PI listing the PI’s research funding portfolio.)
  4. A copy of the abstract(s) submitted to IMMUNOLOGY2024™ including the abstract submission ID number(s), abstract topic category, title(s), complete author list(s) in order, and body text (if applicable)
 

Complete application packages must be received by 11:59 PM Eastern on December 5, 2023. Packages must be uploaded as a single combined PDF file through your AAI member account at https://account.aai.org/. Incomplete application packages or applications that do not comply with the stated instructions will not be considered. AAI will not accept materials sent separately, through regular mail, or by email. Final award decisions are at the discretion of AAI.

AAI Minority Scientist Travel Award Recipients

VIEW 2023 RECIPIENTS

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