Lucie Besner Travel Awards
The Lucie Besner Travel Awards Competition is now OPEN
The Lucie Besner Travel Awards support national and international presence of the MRM Trainees. The MRM Network is having two competitions a year:
Summer Competition (Open)
- Submission Deadline: May 31st, 2026
- For events between June 2026 and November 2026
Winter Competition (Closed)
- Submission Deadline: November 30th, 2026
- For events between December 2026 and May 2027
Eligibility
- You must be a trainee (undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral fellow) with a valid McGill ID.
- You must be a current MRM Member.
- You must have an abstract submitted for a presentation at a national or international meeting. Important: if registration for the event or abstract submission is not available before the competition’s deadline, you can still apply. You will be asked to provide proof of registration when available to confirm the award.
- You must use the Award to attend a meeting related to Regenerative Medicine or to present your work on Stem Cells / Regenerative Medicine.
- If you have received a Lucie Besner Travel Award already, you will be eligible again after 1 year (i.e. you can not apply to the round directly following the one you were awarded).
Conditions
- The award shall be up to a maximum of $500 to cover registration fees and/or travel fees (transport, accommodation, meals).
- Only two applications per laboratory will be allowed by competition but two students from the same laboratory will not be awarded in the same competition.
- The MRM Network must be acknowledged and MRM Logo must be included in the presentation.
Application procedure
Applicants must complete the application form below and submit by email along with the proof that your abstract was submitted* for an oral or poster presentation.
* If the proof of your abstract submission is not available by the time you are registering to the competition, you will be asked to send it to us when available.
Evaluation criteria
The MRM Prizes & Awards Committee will judge the applications based on:
- Abstract: novelty of the project, impact (or potential impact) of the results and quality of writing (grammar, language, structure, readability)
- Letter of motivation: the applicant must present the meeting he/she will attend while justifying its importance to the field and must clearly state his/her motivation and potential career benefits.
Award payment
The payment of the award will be done through your McGill expense report on Minerva. After the meeting, provide all proof of attendance, receipts and bank statements to justify the expenses in a single PDF document to the Network by email and we will send you the detailed process to be followed in order to include your Award in your expense report.