Celebrating Excellence: Scholarships & Global Travel Award Winners in the 2025 Conference Season

In June, Keystone Symposia's 2025 conference season concluded. Altogether, the nonprofit organization served 8,533 attendees across 53 scientific meetings to forge new frontiers in life sciences and biomedicine research. In total, we awarded 314 scholarships to students and postdoctoral researchers, providing access to formative career development opportunities at Keystone Symposia conferences. This year, the majority of these awards were supported by Keystone Symposia’s Future of Science Fund, after NIH grant funding was disrupted. As part of our commitment to the next generation of scientists, Keystone Symposia leadership decided to draw from these limited funds to sustain the number of scholarships offered for young scientists who are facing even more challenging times than ever before. This special fund was created in 2000, for specifically this purpose. At the time, Keystone Symposia's leadership had the foresight to establish the fund as a safeguard against potential reduction of federal funding-- the sole support mechanism for scholarships until that point. 

Keystone Symposia scholarships are prestigious merit-based awards, selected by meeting organizers for the quality of the scientific abstract submitted. In celebration of our scholarship winners this year, awardees at select meetings were invited to a special luncheon with the Keystone Symposia leadership, including CEO, Dr. Jamie Baumgartner and CSO, Dr. Terry Sheppard, to discuss the needs of the next-generation of scientists and how Keystone Symposia can better serve these rising stars.

Terry and I greatly enjoyed meeting with the scholarship winners to better understand current challenges early career investigators are facing. Several great ideas on program enrichment were discussed that we will implement in the coming meeting season, such as creating a gathering space for first time Keystone Symposia attendees at opening receptions, and hosting a pre-conference networking and communication skills workshop in collaboration with CU Anschutz."

-Jamie Baumgartner, Keystone Symposia CEO

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It was great to sit down with the scholarship winners, CEO and CSO to talk all things science. As we were all from different research institutions across the globe, I found it interesting to discuss our different challenges and perspectives in the current research climate, and highlighted the importance of meetings like these to maintain our wider scientific community. I also appreciated the CEO and CSO’s interest in our opinions on changes Keystone can make to improve accessibility and engagement at future events."

- Anna Hains, Scholarship luncheon participant & 3rd year PhD student, University of Manchester

In addition, 20 early-career travel awards (ECITAs) were provided to scientists just establishing their careers and aspiring to make their mark on science as they start up their own labs. These were generously funded by The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Andy Robertson Memorial Fund, Bright Focus, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation,  the NIH and scientific advisory board member Aris Economides.  Applicants for these awards must be an assistant professor or equivalent level from government, non-profit, academic sector, no greater than six years into appointment and engaged in full-time laboratory research. Attendance at top tier scientific conferences is critical at this career stage, enabling emerging group leaders to build the networks, collaborations and exposure they need to succeed.

 2026 SCHOLARSHIPS & FINANCIAL AID APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
Be sure to submit your application... deadlines are already approaching!

Learn more  

Spread the word to those in your network who may be eligible!

Don't forget-- we also provide student discounts on registration.

Global Awards

Ensuring global participation in our conferences, Keystone Symposia provided  Global Health Travel Awards (GHTAs) to 112 attendees from low- and middle-income countries. GHTA awardees represented 23 different countries across Africa, Asia and South America continents, bringing diverse perspectives and lived experience to important discussions about how to solve global health challenges. Global participation is critical to ensure research makes real-world impacts, by providing insights into regional challenges and opportunities in combatting endemic disease. These global researchers also bring knowledge and new collaborations back to their communities to enact change and improve global health.

The GHTA program is made possible by generous supporters such as the Gates Foundation – a longstanding sponsor of these awards for over 20 years (since 2004)! This year, the Gates Foundation funded 92 GHTAs for four conferences in our global health series: Tuberculosis, Malaria, Vaccinology and HIV, the last held in South Africa. In addition, GlaxoSmithKlein and the  Dixit Endowment sponsored the Tuberculosis and Malaria meetings, respectively.

Another longstanding partner, the Volkswagon Foundation, sponsored 14 awards this year for conferences held at their venue in Hannover, Germany, which included the conferences on Myeloid Cells and Climate Change & Infectious Disease Threats.  

A new partner this year, the Wellcome Trust, also sponsored to GHTAs for the Climate Change & Infectious Disease conference while hosting panel discussions on big picture issues in the field, including funding opportunities and public policy collaborations. These panels and talks from the meeting are still available On Demand for a limited time only!  Learn more.

Global Health Travel Award Winners Photo at the Climate Change & Infectious Disease Threats Conference in Hannover, Germany

For those unable to attend in-person due to funding limitations, travel restrictions or other hurdles, we offer free On Demand access to viewers in LMICs.  These opportunities are now open for the 2026 season.

Find out how to apply for On Demand access for LMIC viewers

In addition, new this year LMIC participants may apply for Livestream access to additional conferences outside of the global health series!  Learn more. 

Global Health Travel Awards for the 2026 season are open for applications!

The following conferences are seeking LMIC applicants to attend in-person:

• Tuberculosis: Understanding the Disease Across Scales
• HIV Vaccines: Intersections of Basic and Clinical Science
• Decoding HIV Persistence: Strategies for Curing HIV Infection
• Closing the Data Gap in Global Genomics, Medicine & Population Health
• Computational Advances in Drug Discovery
• Viral Pathogenesis and Immunity: From Molecular Discoveries to Therapeutics

Learn more about approaching deadlines and how to apply for these unique opportunities!

Want to support global scientific dialog?

Become a GHTA sponsor!

Contact Minda Mason:

Mindam@Keystonesymposia.org

Return to the September 2025 Keypoint Newsletter