In June, Keystone Symposia's 2025 conference season wrapped. Altogether, the nonprofit organization served 8,533 attendees across 53 meetings to forge new frontiers in life science and biomedicine research. In total, we awarded 314 scholarships to students and postdocs to attend the meetings for formative career development opportunities. 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, which was the sole support mechanism for scholarships.
Scholarships are prestigious awards, based on merit and 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 CEO, Jamie Baumgartner and CSO, Terry Sheppard, to discuss the needs of the next-generation 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.
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
Be sure to submit scholarship and financial aid applications for 2026 meetings... deadlines are already approaching!
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, we 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 Foundations sponsored 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.
"I am incredibly grateful and honored to have received this award. The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude for this award."
– Dr. K. Athisaya Mary M.Sc., PhD.., ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre, India & Recipient of Global Health Travel Award
I am incredibly grateful and honored to have received this award. The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude for this award.
- Dr. K. Athisaya Mary M.Sc., PhD.., ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre, India & Recipient of Global Health Travel Award
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:
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:
Return to the September 2025 Keypoint Newsletter