Conference and Research Travel Grants
The Graduate School is able to provide limited funding opportunities to graduate students to present conference research, conduct research, and, at times, conference attendance.
Before you apply, be sure to have information about your travel plans handy. You will also be asked to provide a Plan of Work indicating how you plan to spend your time during your research travel. You will need to utilize your ISU.edu email to access the form.
The Graduate School meets to review applications once a month at the beginning of each month, and awards will be issued by the 10th of each month. If your application for support is not received before the 1st of the month, it will be evaluated at the beginning of the following month.
Students with a current minimum 3.0 GPA are eligible.
Call for Applications: 2026 Thesis/Dissertation Workshop
This workshop is intended to assist ISU graduate students currently at their program's thesis and dissertation writing stage, facilitating appreciable progress on manuscripts over the summer months. Preference is given to students working on a thesis or dissertation; however, students interested in preparing manuscripts for possible scholarly publication may also apply.
Groups will meet for three hours, once every two weeks, for ten weeks (5 total meetings), and full attendance is required to participate. Participation over Zoom is acceptable. Workshops will run from May 26 through August 7, and participants will be selected through a competitive application process. Final meeting dates/times will be sent to selected students. Students unable to attend all sessions must decline this opportunity.
Stipends:
Graduate students selected to participate in the summer writing workshop will be granted a summer stipend of $1500. A portion of the stipend ($1000) will be disbursed before June 30, and a residual portion ($500) will be held in reserve and paid upon successful completion of the workshop, as determined by the faculty facilitator. Students receiving support should anticipate submitting a short statement after the summer semester detailing how the support provided impacted their graduate school experience.
Call for Applications: 2026 Summer Grant Writing Workshop
ISU Graduate School has partnered with the Office for Research to develop a grant writing workshop as an additional benefit for summer student development. This grant writing workshop is intended to develop graduate student knowledge in various aspects of grant writing.
Students should expect to meet the following objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of grant writing.
- Identify funding opportunities relevant to their research.
- Learn how to craft compelling grant proposals.
- Gain hands-on experience with key proposal components.
- Be able to assist faculty in writing proposals; know how to connect with program directors.
Six meetings, each lasting two to three hours, will make up the two-week training at the Pocatello Campus. In order to fully experience the workshop objectives, attendees will be expected to complete activities in between meetings. The workshop will convene six times from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., July 13-24.
Through a competitive application process, participants will be chosen. Selected students will receive final meeting dates, times, and modes of delivery. Students who cannot attend every session must forfeit this opportunity because attendance at all meetings is required. The Office for Research Development will host online workshops for the entire campus community during the academic year.
Stipends:
Graduate students selected to participate in the summer writing workshop will be granted a summer stipend of $1000 paid upon successful completion of the workshop, as determined by the facilitator.
"I am very grateful to have received research support from ISU’s graduate school this summer. It enabled me to get a significant head start on my doctoral research project by allowing me to purchase many of the necessary supplies and begin method development. My research uses both plant microfossils (i.e., phytoliths) and microbial (i.e., Bacteria and Fungi) DNA extracted from sediments to detect and characterize human-induced ecological change in the archaeological record. I plan to use this combined approach to obtain a fine-scale measure of the ecological responses of microbes over time through metagenomic analysis while also providing environmental context in the form of diagnostic phytolith morphotypes from known plant taxa. This summer, I was able to purchase some of the supplies and begin processing sediment samples for DNA extraction, amplification, and NGS library construction at ISU’s Center for Archaeology, Materials, and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS). I was also able to begin the development of a method that uses flow cytometry (at ISU’s Molecular Research Core Facility) to quickly sort and isolate plant phytoliths from sediment, reducing total preparation time from hours to just minutes per sample. I look forward to continuing my research this fall at CAMAS and the MRCF with the goal of defending my dissertation and graduating by the end of 2025."
- Rebecca Hazard
"I sincerely appreciate the financial support from the ISU Graduate School, as it has not only facilitated my current research but also motivated me to strive for excellence. The encouragement I have received through this funding has strengthened my resolve to pursue innovative solutions in renewable energy and smart grid technologies. Thank you for your generosity and belief in my research."
- Monsoon Thapa
"I am thankful for being awarded the Creative Works grant by 糖心传媒’s Graduate School. The Creative Works grant has been instrumental in funding chemical analysis for my project. The funding received is being used to partially fund chemical analysis of soil from the sides of interstate highways by BYU’s Environmental Analytical Laboratories. The chemical analysis will be used to view shifts in chemical properties in the soil that are caused by application of soil amendments such as fertilizers and commercial microbial sprays. These chemical shifts will help us to understand the circumstances and environments that are beneficial for native plant revegetation along the sides of highways and direct changes to microbial communities in the soil. Being awarded this grant has enabled me to take my project further by allowing an additional season of sampling and data collection for the chemical data."
- Eric Christen