We encourage students to apply for the NIDCD Student Travel Fellowship.

New development for the current funding cycle, student fellows will be permitted to apply for one of two tracks: Research Presentation (RP) or Career Development (CD). For either track, any student who is actively enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate academic program [1] or post-doctoral fellowship and has earned authorship on an abstract submitted to the CAC may apply, subject to the following limitations: First, each abstract submission may be associated with only one fellowship application, and each fellowship application may be associated with only one abstract submission. Second, fellowship applicants and their co-authors must agree to have the abstract presented as a poster. A small number of highly meritorious fellowship abstracts may be selected for presentation as a platform or roundtable, at the discretion of the Organizing Committee in consultation with the CAC Program Chair.

The RP track is intended for students submitting abstracts reporting original empirical quantitative or qualitative research.

The new CD track is intended to attract applicants earlier in their research training or from related fields who have not yet completed an original research project suitable for submission to the CAC. Abstracts submitted on the CD track may include, for example, case reports, literature reviews, or discussions of frameworks, perspectives, or ideas relevant to clinical aphasiology and the scope of the Clinical Aphasiology Conference as outlined in the Call for Papers.

Abstracts should include a title, appropriate citations of peer-reviewed literature, a reference list, and may include tables and figures. Abstracts may be a maximum of 750 words in length, not including the reference list and any tables or figures. The application process will also require a brief (<700 characters) summary of the abstract and a learning objective.

The criteria for awarding RSCA fellowships include: (1) Preference to students who are members of a Federally-designated ethnic or racial minority group; (2) Authorship, with preference given to first authors; (3) Scientific merit of the submitted abstract, as rated by the RSCA and/or CAC Program Committee; (4) Career stage, with preference given to doctoral students; (5) Commitment to or interest in a research career, as demonstrated by a personal statement and brief CV; and (6) Nationality, with preference given to U.S. Citizens. Also, while the Committee may award fellowships to students who have received it in previous years, preference will be given to applicants who have not previously received an RSCA fellowship.

Applicants also should note that most student fellows will be asked to prepare posters, regardless of their preference for presentation format. These posters will be presented together in a single session and will be posted together in some form on the CAC website, after the meeting. A small number of papers by student fellows may be selected as platform presentations to be included in the regular CAC program. However, students who do not want to present in the poster format, or whose co-authors do not agree to have the paper presented in this format, should not apply.

We note that the 2023 CAC will be presented in a hybrid in-person and virtual/online format. While applications from students seeking to attend and present virtually will be considered, in-person attendance is strongly encouraged, and virtual fellowships will be the exception rather than the rule. Because the RSCA fellowship can only reimburse travel, registration, and other expenses directly associated with conference attendance, in most cases, the amount of virtual fellowships will be limited to the conference registration cost.

­Application Instructions

For both the RP and CD tracks, the fellowship application process is integrated with the CAC abstract submission process. There are three parts to the application. Part 1 consists of demographic, contact, and other information that must be provided as part of the online abstract submission process. Examples for Part 1 for submission to CAC:  Research Statement and  abstract. Part 2 is a form on which to provide basic assurances. It must be signed by the applicant and the applicant’s advisor or department chair. Part 3 is a brief written statement that should be prepared according to instructions provided here. Parts 2 and 3 must be saved as PDFs and uploaded at the appropriate step in the online abstract submission process. Applicants should read and complete each part carefully and follow the instructions for submitting them; incomplete applications will not be considered. The application deadline is the same as the CAC abstract submission deadline, January 16, 2023. We look forward to receiving and reviewing your application. Questions should be addressed to Will Hula at william.hula@va.gov with “RSCA application question” in the subject line.

[1] Applicants must be enrolled in a degree-granting academic program or a post-doctoral fellowship during the 2022-2023 academic year, i.e., the fall 2022 and/or spring 2023 semester.