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PLOS Supports Early Career Researchers with Travel Award and Broader Initiative

PLOS supports the growth of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) as they build skills in science communication, become champions of Open Science and develop into ambassadors of change for a future where all research is freely available, all work is evaluated fairly and all members of the scientific community have opportunity to participate in the dialogue of and about science.

The PLOS Early Career Travel Award Program, now in its second year, provides a forum for expression and recognition of innovative ideas from the next generation of leaders. The program is open to researchers currently enrolled in a graduate program to within five years of receiving their graduate degree, who have published with PLOS and whose presentation has been accepted or will be presented at an upcoming conference. PLOS Early Career Travel Awards will be granted in multiple cycles throughout the year.

For the first round of awards PLOS asks applicants to describe in fewer than 500 words what they consider to be characteristics of the optimal peer review process and how they might build this process either from scratch or using aspects of existing practice. Responses should consider innovative ideas that make science more transparent and that make research more rapidly available, while maintaining integrity, for the benefit of science and society.

Award recipients will be selected based on the creativity and thoughtfulness of the essay and the potential of the idea to affect positive change in advancing science. The award of $500 dollars is designed to cover travel expenses. Applications for this round of the program must be submitted between May 1, 2016 and May 31, 2016.

PLOS also announces an expanded ECR Community Blog led by three Community Editors; two PhD students – one from Cornell Medical College and the other from Harvard – and a public health researcher and lecturer in Sweden. Read “Introducing the PLOS Early Career Researcher Initiative” for details on this venue, formerly known as The Student Blog, that will be enhanced in the future with an ECR Resource Center serving as an online library to broaden experiences, provide practical tips and help ECRs navigate the waters of less formalized educational and career opportunities. Watch for updates to the venue throughout the year.

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