MUSC Center For Global Health
Trainee Global Health Travel Grants
Application Deadline: April 19, 2013
Earliest Anticipated Award Date: May 20, 2013
The MUSC Center for Global Health (CGH) is pleased to announce opportunities for international travel grants in low and middle-income countries of up to $2,000 each to MUSC students and resident trainees for a 12-month period. The goal of the awards is to assist recipients in furthering global health research or training projects in low- or middle-income countries. Travel awards cannot be used to support conference attendance.
Eligibility
- Applicants must secure a letter of recommendation by a MUSC faculty advisor who will assume the role of mentor and assume all responsibility for assisting the applicant with preparation for travel, activities to be performed at the site, mentoring and safety of the applicant. Faculty advisor must agree to work with his/her department business manager to ensure funds can be distributed from CGH to department to manage the recipient’s award.
- Applicants are encouraged to participate in a MUSC-affiliated research or educational project with well-defined goals and objectives.
- Student applicants must be registered MUSC full-time students and be in good academic standing at the time of travel.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION
See full RFA and Application Cover Page
- Complete CGH Application Cover Page.
- Proposal. Provide a two-page proposal (Arial font size 11, at least 0.5” margins) which includes the following information: Use the following headings.
a. Activity goals and objectives
b. Activity description
c. Specific learning objectives (Applicants are encouraged to work with faculty advisor to clarify learning objectives for project)
d. Description of host institution/partner
e. Background and experience that demonstrate applicant’s ability to carry out the project
f. Timeline - Budget. (Itemization of expenses such as housing, visa, airfare, food, immunizations). Funds may be used for pre-travel immunizations, visa/passport fees, airfare, program fees, and room and board related to your global health experience. Funds may not be used to support salary for trainees. Travel and accommodation (amounts, items, class of airfare, etc) must adhere to MUSC’s travel policies.
- Letter of support from faculty advisor. Applicants must provide a letter of support from their MUSC faculty member advisor. The faculty advisor should discuss the applicant’s potential and preparedness to undertake the proposed project. The faculty advisor should explicitly describe the support he/she will provide the applicant and the responsibilities for the applicant to whom he/she is committing. Applications will not be reviewed until this letter is received.
- Letter of support from faculty advisor’s business manager to assume responsibility for funds.
- Letter of invitation from host or partnering institution. If the applicant will be working with an institution/organization outside of the University, a letter of support from that organization should be submitted with the application. The letter should explicitly describe the support the organization will provide for the proposed project and the person in the organization who is the main point of contact for the project. If there is no collaborating institution provide justification for how goals can be accomplished in lieu of in country collaborator.
- Letter of good standing from registrar’s office (for students)
- Current CV/Resume
Submission Format
Please combine all required elements into a single PDF document and submit via email to ellisk@musc.edu with the subject line of “Your Name -- Global Health Travel Grant.”
EVALUATION
A review committee will evaluate the applications based upon the following criteria:
- Overall significance of the project to global health.
- Overall strength of learning objectives.
- The preparedness of the applicant to undertake the project as proposed.
- Commitment level of the faculty member to act as mentor.
- Commitment of the partnering institution.
Award Requirements
- Award is contingent upon each applicant’s satisfactory participation in MUSC’s required pre-departure preparation and evaluation process. Failure to actively participate in and complete the pre-departure preparation process can result in revocation of the award.
- Funds must be used within 12 months of award date.
- Recipients are required to check-in with an email or skype call on a regular basis with their MUSC mentor with progress updates on the project and their learning objectives.
- Upon return, recipients of the award are expected to:
-- Complete a required survey through the CGH within 30 days of returning from the funded trip.
-- Work with the CGH to host and deliver a presentation on campus.
-- Agree to reference the support of the CGH in any subsequent papers, publicity, etc.
-- Submit a personal reflection statement and 5 hi-resolution photos no later than 1 month after returning to MUSC, and agree to allow the CGH the rights to use for publicity and educational purposes. Please assure that human subjects in photos give permission for their image to be captured and disseminated.
Before receiving the funding, the awardee will need to complete MUSC’s pre-departure preparation process including the following:
- Submit proof of health insurance coverage that extends to international coverage for duration of project.
- Register emergency contact information with MUSC's emergency evacuation provider.
- Submit MUSC’s travel waiver to the CGH.
- Review U.S. State Department travel warnings and alerts.
- Human Subjects Research – projects engaged in human subjects research (interaction with a living person or obtaining private information from existing data, documents, records or diagnostic specimens) must have their projects approved by the MUSC IRB and documentation of approval before receiving funds.
Please direct inquiries related to this funding announcement to:
Kathleen Ellis
Director of Operations
MUSC Center for Global Health
843.792.5602
ellisk@musc.edu