IPBGG Opportunities

PBGG Graduate Student & Postdoc Travel Awards

Policy updated 05 December 2025

The IPBGG encourages its graduate students and postdoctoral scientists to gain experience in presenting their work and gaining exposure to other audiences.  Therefore, a student or postdoctoral scientist presenting a paper or poster at a professional conference may apply for a travel award from the Institute to help defray the cost of travel. The guidelines below will be used in considering all travel requests.  Up to 40 requests that meet these guidelines will be honored for requests made before March 15.  After that, fund availability will determine if any additional awards can be made the rest of the fiscal year.

• Applicants must be reporting results of their research and be the primary author of the oral or poster presentation.
• The meeting or conference must be of regional, national, or international importance.  Commodity-specific meetings also qualify.
• Applicants are limited to one travel award per UGA fiscal year (July 1 through June 30).
• Up to $1000 may be requested for domestic and $1500 for international travel.
• The applicant should send a brief paragraph addressed to the Institute Director naming the conference, the presentation to be given, and a breakout of anticipated costs.
  • Accompanying the request should be evidence that the research has been accepted for presentation along with a copy of the abstract to be presented.
  • The recipient must explicitly agree to identify the IPBGG as one of their affiliations, and to display the IPBGG logo in their slides or poster. 
• Graduate students must be PBGG majors and in good standing within the Institute, which includes routine seminar attendance in person and attendance at the previous retreat unless a valid excuse is provided for not having attended, and timely submission of all required paperwork.
• Postdocs must have applied for membership in the IPBGG and been admitted, and have attended an annual PBGG retreat within the past 12 months, unless a valid excuse is provided for not having attended
• Please submit travel requests to the IPBGG Administrative Manager, (pbgg@uga.edu) at least one month prior to the beginning of the trip.

Alternatively, PBGG faculty, staff, students, & postdocs may request up to $1000 domestic or $1500 international in funding to help defray the cost of a study visit to another lab.   The goal is to facilitate the acquisition of new training or skills not available on campus, and not the conduct of on-going research.  Applicants should send a brief letter addressed to the Institute Director describing the purpose or goals of the study visit and a breakout of anticipated costs.  Students and postdocs must be in good standing as described above.  

Meeting these criteria is not a guarantee of funding. Funding is contingent on availability of funds in the Institute.  Institute funding may be added to travel assistance from other sources. Funding recipients are strongly encouraged to use these funds to match travel fund requests from the UGA Graduate School.

Competitive Awards

Eligibility for the Boerma and Burton Awards

• MS students from the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics in good academic standing will be considered for one Burton award
• MS students must have a research proposal approved by their committee at the time of application
• Ph.D. students from the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics in good academic standing will be considered for the Boerma and one Burton award.
• The Ph.D recipient must have passed the comprehensive exam and had their dissertation research proposal approved by their graduate committee at the time of application
• Awards will be made annually as long as a qualified candidate has been identified and funds are available.
• For the Burton award, an additional qualification is that the recipient must be working on a crop used for food or feed.
• Candidates agree that if they are an award recipient, they will provide thank-you notes to the donors.

Nomination Procedure for the Boerma and Burton Awards

• There is a combined application form for the Burton and Boerma awards. The Steering Committee will which award best fits the selected students
• Nominations must initiate from major professors of the Ph.D. students
  
• Nomination materials must be compiled into a single PDF document in the order listed in the next section and submit electronically to pbgg@uga.edu.
  
• Nomination deadline: Nov. 1
  

Required Nomination Materials for the Boerma and Burton Awards

• A 600-word statement by the student describing 1) their thesis/dissertation research, 2) how it contributes towards plant cultivar development in the short or long-term, 3) how their research projects are relevant to their career goal. Students who want to be eligible for the Burton award must also explain how their research will contribute to food or feed production.
• Curriculum vitae and graduate school transcripts.
• Two letters of support, with one from the nominee’s major professor.

Evaluation and Selection Process  for the Boerma and Burton Awards

• Nomination packages get reviewed by the IPBGG Steering Committee
• The recipients will be selected based on their academic achievement and relevance of their dissertation research towards the Burton and Boerma award goals.
  
• Recipients are expected to write thank-you letters for the award donors when they are contacted by the CAES office of Development & Alumni relations.
  

Recipients are expected to acknowledge support from either the Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence Scholarship Award or the Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Fund whenever they present or publish their dissertation research results.

Eligibility

• Ph.D. students from the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics in good academic standing will be considered.
• The recipient must have passed the comprehensive exam, have selected a dissertation research project, and had their dissertation research proposal approved by their graduate committee at the time of application
  
• One award will be given annually as long as a qualified candidate has been identified and funds are available.
  

Nomination Procedure

• Nominations must initiate from major professors of the Ph.D. students
• Nomination materials must be compiled into a single PDF document in the order listed in the next section and submit electronically to pbgg@uga.edu.
  
• Nomination deadline: Nov. 1
  

Required Nomination Materials

• A 600-word statement by the student describing their 1) personal philosophy on leadership, 2) a description of their leadership activities, and 3) how their leadership activities are relevant to their graduate training and their career goals.
• Curriculum vitae and graduate school transcripts.
  
• Two letters of support, with one from the nominee’s major professor.
  

Evaluation and Selection Process

• Nomination packages are reviewed by the IPBGG Steering Committee
• The recipient will be selected based on the nature and extent of their leadership activities, with additional consideration given to their academic and research achievements.
  

The recipient is expected to acknowledge the support of The Peggy Ozias-Akins Leadership in Science Award whenever they present or publish their dissertation research results.

Eligibility

• Students enrolled in the PBGG Master’s or PhD program
• Postdoctoral fellows must be hosted by a member of IPBGG and have applied and been accepted as a member of the IPBGG
• Students must be in good academic standing and have at least 9 months left in their program
• Faculty or research professional must be a member of IPBGG

Application Procedure

• Application materials must be compiled into a single PDF document in the order listed in the next section and submit electronically to pbgg@uga.edu.
• Application deadline: May 30

Required Nomination Materials

Graduate student or postdoctoral; fellow research proposal submissions must include:

• Cover page
• Abstract (250-word limit) 
• Project Description (5-page limit excluding references) that includes the introduction, rationale and significance, research approaches, pitfalls and limitations
• References
• Curriculum vitae (2 pages)
• Budget and Budget Justification
• Supporting letter from the major advisor
• Optional, up to two other supporting letters/documents

Faculty or research professional development proposal submissions (2-page limit) must include:

• Aim
• Location
• Host
• Anticipated impact on faculty member’s development of new tools, technologies or approaches that target novel plant breeding approaches to overcome cultivar development challenges
• Budget and Budget Justification
• Other sources of support
• Supporting letter from host

Evaluation and Selection Process 

Proposals will be reviewed by the Award committee formed by the Senior Licensing Manager, Innovation Gateway, and may include faculty and students from the IPBGG as well as personnel from UGARF, and other  departments/centers/institutes as needed. 

It is the intention of Innovation Gateway that the focus of this grant program is to benefit UGA plant breeding programs. Hence, there must be a corresponding plant breeding program(s) at UGA that can benefit from this research.  Be sure to explain how your research will benefit UGA breeding program(s).

Important considerations to the Award committee when evaluating proposals: (1) innovation – highest priority; (2) likelihood of improving plant breeding success at UGA; (3) clarity of proposal; (4) impact of trait or additional training; (5) significance of crop to Georgia.

Budget/award

Total annual funding level for the Award is $20,000, if funds are available after the annual Program meeting, as determined by UGARF. Awards are anticipated to be in the range of $5,000 - $10,000 per funded proposal. At the discretion of the Award committee, it is possible that no proposals may be selected for funding in a given year if no applications are submitted or meet the Focus. Additionally, Awards may provide funding for up to 2 years for a single project. Budgets should not include salary.

Final Report

• Description of how funding was used
• Scientific summary of research project results or skills learned during extended leave/sabbatical (500-word limit)
• Non-technical description of the impact the funding provided, specifically as it relates to the Focus
• Limited to 3 pages
• Give a 10–15-minute overview at the the IPBGG annual retreat of the research done with these monies and the results obtained.  The presentation can be the year after the award was received, but no later than 2 years