The HMS Office of Scholarly Engagement (OSE) offers partial funding to MD students who seek to present their work at academic or professional conferences.
Funding Overview
Students must apply at least one month prior to start of their conference(s) using the form provided in the Apply section. Additional materials must be submitted. If approved, the OSE can offer up to $500 per student over their time at HMS. A student can make one request up to $500 or can make multiple requests totaling $500.
The OSE stipend is not likely to cover the full cost of attendance. The stipend is used to offset registration and travel costs including standard coach airfare, ground transportation and lodging. Funding support does not cover food, drink or incidentals.
Purchases should be made up front and in your name. Funding is provided upon your return and after submission of required documentation. Therefore, save your original receipts for submission as part of the requirement for reimbursement. Instructions for submitting reimbursements can be found in the Once Approved section.
Eligibility
If the conference occurs during class time, your instructor(s) must approve the absence.
Your presentation must be related to work you have done while at HMS AND you have to be officially accepted to present a talk, an abstract or a poster at the conference. Graduating students cannot apply for conference funding for conferences occurring after May 5th of their graduating year.
Funding is not available for academic or professional conferences hosted at Harvard University.
Application & Deadline
Deadline: At least one month prior to the conference start date, the following items must be submitted to ose@hms.harvard.edu:
- Online application for OSE conference funding
- Official confirmation of acceptance of your paper, poster or talk
- An estimated budget itemizing your expenses and any other funding sources you have secured or plan to secure. You must note the names and amounts of other travel grants you were awarded or still expect to receive.
- Your mentor’s endorsement of your OSE funding application, which should include a short description of their involvement and supervision of the project you are working on
Retroactive funding requests will not be considered.
Once Approved
Submit the following to ose@hms.harvard.edu within 30 days of the conference end date:
- Your presentation as a pdf
- Proof of attendance: Submit a photo of you in front of your conference presentation and/or the conference sign or a picture of your conference nametag
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All original and/or electronic receipts for your qualified expenses (registration, lodging, airfare, and/or ground transportation). Receipts should show date of purchase, what was purchased, amount paid and method of payment for conference.
- If you cannot locate a receipt that meets these criteria, please send a copy of your account purchase history and/or bank account statement that shows your name, date, last four digits of your account number and the conference related purchase(s).
- If you shared a room or transport, let us know your share of the costs. If you split costs with another person, pay for your share of the costs directly with the vendor so you can present OSE with proof of your direct payment to the vendor.
- Your application requires you to list any other funding sources you have secured or plan to secure for this conference. If you are successful at receiving other funding, note the sources and amounts of funding you received or expect to receive when you submit your proof of attendance documentation. The OSE will consider these other sources of funding when finalizing the stipend it will pay.
Stipends will be paid to students after the conference upon submission of proof of attendance and acceptable receipts. Students will receive their stipend approximately 60 days after submitting their documentation. The stipend is taxable income; some foreign students may have US taxes taken out of their stipend.