Challenger Society Travel Awards
Travel awards are available to assist postgraduate students and Masters Degree students in their 4th year who are members of the Challenger Society and are based at a UK research institution, to attend scientific conferences or participate in cruises and fieldwork. Priority is given to students who have had a paper or poster accepted for a recognised conference. The Society cannot guarantee that an award will be made and this should not be assumed in applying for funding elsewhere.
It is possible to apply for travel awards to the value of £250 for UK travel or £500 for international travel during your period of study. However, travel awards cannot be made retrospectively, the application must be submitted prior to travel. The Challenger Society will not fund internal flights within the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) unless it is necessary to allow participation (reasonable examples include but are not limited to caring responsibilities and disabilities). We do not require applicants to disclose personal information but ask them to acknowledge that they fall under a reasonable exemption to allow an internal flight in their application.
- Masters Degree students in their 4th year of study may apply for one award, EITHER a UK travel award OR an international travel award
- MSc students may apply for one award, EITHER a UK travel award OR an international travel award.
- PhD students may apply for two awards, i.e., both UK, both international or one of each.
Please submit your application to one of the following deadlines: January 15th, April 15th, July 15th and October 15th. Each deadline will have a total budget of around £1,500. Monies can be rolled over if not fully used in any one period. If you have any questions regarding the scheme, please contact Sophie Wilmes s.wilmes@bangor.ac.uk
Detailed Guidelines for Travel Award Applicants can be found here
The Travel Award application form is available here.
Reports from previous winners of Travel Awards can be found here
Instructions to Awardees:
If you have been awarded a Travel Award, congratulations! As part of the award it is mandatory to fill in a report of your travel prior to receiving the funds. A template of the report can be found here and must be used. Please fill this in and email as a word document to Dr Sophie-Berenice Wilmes (s.wilmes@bangor.ac.uk) with one attached photo. If you have a twitter account please help raise the profile of the Society and our support of students by tweeting during your travels and tagging @challengersoc.
The Challenger Society is working towards being a fully equitable and inclusive organisation (see EDI statement here).
Latest News
Workshop on the contribution of UK Arctic Ocean science to the International Polar Year 32/33
12:00 11th June – 16:00 12th June 2025: NOC Southampton (In-person with online option): Registration deadline 16th May
REGISTER HERE
Pre-meeting questionnaire (open to all)
The purpose of this workshop is for the UK Ocean Science community to discuss and then draft a prospectus document outlining the priority Arctic research questions the community would like to address during the run up to, throughout and beyond the International Polar Year 32/33. Additionally, to identify what unique strengths and technologies the UK has to help fill these knowledge gaps.
The second day of the workshop will be dedicated to writing groups, one for each of the priority research questions identified - from both the pre-meeting questionnaire (HERE) and day one discussion. By the end of the meeting, each group will have produced draft text and sourced supporting figures for the prospectus.
Post meeting, the draft will be opened for comments and suggestions from everyone, regardless of whether they were able to attend the workshop or not. It will then be shared with UK funders (UKRI, FCDO, DSIT, ARIA) and potential international programmes with whom we would like to collaborate (e.g. Arctic 2050, Norway). It will form a basis from which wider integration with terrestrial, atmospheric and cryosphere communities can be built, e.g. at the UK Arctic Science Meeting in September in Northumbria.
To ensure balanced community and ECR representation, and to ensure that the size of the writing groups is efficient and effective, if the number of registrations from individual institutes becomes overwhelming, we may contact individuals or teams and ask that each institute selects a smaller number of individuals to attend in-person. Please wait for confirmation of in-person attendance before finalising travel arrangements.
The workshop will be open to hybrid attendance and contributions on both days.
Challenger Society Council Position Vacancy
The Challenger Society for Marine Science (CSMS) are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity to support the next generation of ocean scientists and innovators. CSMS are looking for a new Council member to fill the Student Travel Awards and Stepping Stones Portfolio. The successful applicant will administer the travel and research grants available for Early Career Researchers.
The role involves:
- Receiving applications for the two schemes and responding to applicant inquiries
- Soliciting and compiling input from the rest of the Council for assessing the applications
- Communicating with successful and unsuccessful applicants for the two schemes
- Working with the Honorary Treasurer on allocating funds to successful applicants
- Following up with award winners on their reporting requirements
- Attending Council meetings four times a year (in person or online) and contributing to discussions and decision making for CSMS
The usual term for Council members is three years.
For more information about the CSMS Council, please follow this link: https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/The_Council
For more information about our Early Career Researcher grants and awards, please follow this link:
https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/Stepping_Stones
and
https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/Travel_awards
If you are interested in applying or have any questions regarding the role, please contact kathen@bas.ac.uk
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. The agenda will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join.
To participate, please complete your registration here.
For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk