Student Travel Support Selection Criteria

One of the hallmarks of the NSF CEDAR program has been the ability to support a significant number of undergraduate and graduate students to attend the annual workshop. This support from the National Science Foundation has been critical in engaging and training the next generation of CEDAR scientists and preparing them for their careers as scientists. However, it may not always be possible to support all students interested in attending the CEDAR workshop, necessitating a selection process to determine which students will receive support.

Selection Guidelines

Student travel support is limited, and it is likely that not every student will be financially supported by the workshop. The selection procedure in the case where the demand for student travel support is greater than available funding is as follows:

1. Total available funding will be divided 90%-10% between graduate and undergraduate applicants, respectively.
2. Students comprising the applicant pool will be divided into four categories (based on information provided by the students and/or their advisors): graduate students whose participation at the workshop is contingent on funding support (Category 1);  graduate students whose participation at the workshop is not contingent on funding support (Category 2);  undergraduate students whose participation at the workshop is contingent on funding support (Category 3); and, undergraduate students whose participation at the workshop is not contingent on funding support (Category 4).
3. Support for graduate students (90% of total funding) will be assigned by random draw, firstly to students in category 1, until either all graduate support is allocated, or all category 1 students are supported. If any graduate support remains un-allocated after the category 1 draw, these positions will be offered by random draw to students in category 2.
4. Support for undergraduate students (10% of total funding) will be assigned by random draw, firstly to students in category 3, until either all undergraduate support is allocated, or all category 3 students are supported. If any undergraduate support remains un-allocated after the category 3 draw, these positions will be offered by random draw to students in category 4. 

It is our hope that advisors will take this selection process into consideration and support students out of their existing grants when possible.

In general, priority for student travel support will be given to students enrolled at U.S. degree-granting institutions over those at non-U.S. institutions.