Awards of up to $2,500 will support travel for a team of two or three graduate students or postdocs for travel to the other’s respective lab to work on a new collaboration. A broad topic will be announced related to mechanobiology at the conference. To be eligible for the award, graduate students or postdocs must co-submit a single abstract (350 words or less) that addresses the topic before the end of the conference (July 27th at midnight) by email to mechbio@uci.edu with the subject [Opportunity Award]. By August 10, 2018 at midnight, the proposers must co-submit a complete proposal (3 pages or less) and each proposer must submit an advisor support form at https://sites.uci.edu/mechbio2018/opportunity-awards/. A member from each of the submitting labs must have attended the symposium, the labs must be from different from institutions, and must not have co-published before.
The announcement of the award recipients will be made by emailing the award recipients and the faculty mentors of the award recipients, and through a posting on the conference website. After one year, the winning teams will produce a progress report submitted to the Organizers. After two years, the teams will be invited to present their final research at the next Mechbio Symposium, which will be held in 2020.