FEMS Grants: make your Microbiology Society membership go further

You probably already know that your membership of the Microbiology Society makes you eligible to apply for our grants programme, which offers funding for many different activities that can support your professional development and career prospects. Did you know that your Society membership also makes you eligible for a range of grants from the Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS)?

Members of FEMS Member Societies are eligible to apply to FEMS for research grants and support for organising or attending meetings. The FEMS Grants on offer can help you to reach collaborators across the world, and host meetings of relevance to your colleagues, to facilitate network building. FEMS places an emphasis on supporting early career scientists, who they define as active microbiologists within five years of the highest academic degree earned, or current postgraduate students.

Microbiology Society member Conall Holohan won a FEMS Research Grant to visit Diana Sousa, Wageningen University, in April 2017, saying of the award: “Ultimately, this FEMS Research Grant ensured my research was comprehensive and efficient, gaining a more in-depth microbiological insight with [my host’s] microbial methods, thus allowing our research and results to inform the field in a greater manner than before this visit.”

Conall additionally received a Microbiology Society Research Visit Grant later that year, showing that the initiative to apply for funding to visit collaborators can greatly enhance the research experience of early career researchers.

There are many benefits available from FEMS that you are eligible for via your Microbiology Society membership. You can find out more via the website.

FEMS Grants 

Meeting Organiser Grants

Provide up to €15,000 to support selected European training courses, scientific conferences or laboratory workshops – 60% of the award should be spent on supporting the attendance of early career scientists.

Deadline: 1 December for events taking place between 1 April 2019 and 31 January 2020.

Meeting Attendance Grants

Provide up to €600 to support early career researchers to attend a microbiology meeting anywhere in the world.

Deadlines: 1 March and 1 September for events taking place within a year of the following 1 May or 1 November, respectively.

Research and Training Grants

These grants offer up to €4,000 to early career researchers to visit a European host in a country outside of their country of residence, in order to conduct a research project or to gain some training.

Deadlines: 1 January and 1 July for projects starting within a year of the following 1 March or 1 September, respectively.