Scholarly Presentation Award

The Graduate School encourages graduate students to present their research and scholarship at professional conferences and meetings. We understand that presentation opportunities help build transferrable skills, highlight the outstanding academic work of our scholarly community, and ultimately support graduate student success. To assist students in these endeavors, the Graduate School offers the Scholarly Presentation Award to provide graduate students with financial support to assist with certain costs associated with presenting their scholarly work at academic conferences and meetings.

The award also aligns with and supports development in the OSU Grad Advantage core competencies for graduate students. Nominees are encouraged to complete the OSU Grad Advantage Self-Assessment Tool at the time of their nomination, or in the case of prospective students after they have been formally admitted to gauge their ongoing professional development.

Award details

An individual student may receive up to $1000 in Scholarly Presentation Award funds per academic year. Funds will be disbursed via check or direct deposit.

This is a student reimbursement award only; advance payments are not available. Students must provide documentation showing that they directly provided payment. Payments made on behalf of the student with an OSU Purchasing/Department card are not acceptable. Students may apply for the award prior to purchasing their PD opportunity, however, if selected for an award, all awardees will be required to submit proof of purchase (made by the student) before reimbursement funds will be issued.

Eligibility

The student must be listed as the sole author/presenter, first or lead author/presenter, or serving in a capacity whereby they are responsible for significant leadership for the overall session. Materials must have been accepted by the conference/meeting at the time of the request.
- For graduate students interested in attending conferences or meetings but who are not presenting, we encourage them to explore the Graduate Student Professional Development Award.
The student must be a current master’s or doctoral student at Oregon State University and be making satisfactory academic progress as determined by the student’s graduate program.
The student must be enrolled in at least 3 graduate credits at OSU at the time of the conference/meeting, or in the case of a conference/meeting occurring between the end of spring term and the beginning of fall term, the student must be registered for at least 3 graduate credits of enrollment in fall term following the award.
Examples of qualifying costs for reimbursement include:
- Conference/meeting registration fees
- Professional organization membership fees
- Poster printing costs

Fund restrictions

Examples of costs not eligible for reimbursement include:

Travel, lodging, and food expenses
Living expenses
Editing services

Request period

Requests opened July 3, 2023 and will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the academic year; subject to funding availability per term. Funding for Winter 2024 exhausted on Monday, February 26, 2024. Requests will re-open for spring term on Monday, April 1, 2024. Requests must be made no earlier than one term prior to the date of the activity, and no later than 30 days following the activity.

Request process and timeline

Requests must be submitted by the student directly through the online request form. Students will receive an email with the award decision, typically within 7-10 business days.

In the online request form, students will be required to prepare/upload the following materials as one PDF document using the following file name convention:
"Last Name_Department_ScholarlyPresentation.pdf", and upload it through the request form.

A detailed statement from the student describing (a) the importance of the meeting/conference relative to their academic field of study, (b) how the proposed activity contributes to their academic and professional goals, and (c) an overview of the research they will be presenting. Students are encouraged to complete the OSU Grad Advantage Self-Assessment Tool to assist them in responding to part (b). 1–2 page(s) maximum.
Letter from student's major professor, department head, program director, or unit chair/head (a) relating the importance of the particular meeting/conference, (b) describing the student’s scholarly contribution to the presentation, and (c) confirming that the student is in good academic standing with their respective graduate program; 1 page maximum.
A copy of the submitted and accepted abstract, call for program, or similar submission, including the title, the authors in the order they appear in the original submission, and official notification of acceptance of the presentation.
Proof of proposed reimbursement request costs (i.e. link to conference registration, screenshot of receipt, invoice, or proof of payment).
A copy of the student’s résumé or curriculum vitae.