ismbeccb2025

Links within this page: Invitation Letters | Electronic Travel Authorizations | European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) Requirement

In order to travel to England, there are certain entry requirements you must meet depending on the country you live in.

You can check if you need a visa and if you meet basic eligibility requirements HERE.

If you require a visa, you can apply for a visa up to 3 months before the day you are due to travel to the UK. Once you’ve applied online, proved your identity and provided your documents, you’ll usually get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks if you’re outside the UK, or 8 weeks if you’re inside the UK. If deemed eligible, you may also pay an additional fee for a faster decision using ‘priority service’.

Please refer to the UK Visas and Immigrations Department webpages for additional links and information.

You can also visit the IATA TravelCentre website, input information about your trip, and receive details about what immigration and health requirements must be met.

- top -

Invitation Letters

If you require an invitation letter to support your visa application, please complete our Visa Letter Form. This must be completed after you register for the conference, and we recommend filling it out no later than Sunday, April 27th, 2025.

Using this form results in an auto-generated visa letter. If you experience any issues generating your visa letter, please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Visa Letter Form

- top -

Electronic Travel Authorizations (ETA)

Non-Europeans can apply in advance for an ETA, and will need one to enter the UK beginning January 8, 2025. An ETA is not a visa; it is a digital permission to travel to the UK. Applying for an ETA costs £16.

For more details on the ETA application steps, what you can/cannot do with an ETA, and materials needed to apply, please read this page. 

If you are unsure whether you need an ETA, you can check the "Who does not need an ETA" section on the page linked above.

- top -

European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) Requirement

The ETIAS travel authorization is a new program that was set to launch in 2025, but is now launching in the last quarter of 2026. No action from travelers is required at this time.

If you would like to review the ETIAS requirements in advance of the program's launch, please visit the links below.

It is a requirement for entry for visa-exempt nationals traveling to any of a list of 30 European countries. The travel authorization is linked to your passport, and with it you’re able to enter the territory of the listed European countries as often as you want for short-term stays in any 180-day period. Note, however, that the ETIAS authorization does not guarantee entry to these countries. You will still be required to show your passport and other documentation in order to verify that you meet each country’s entry requirements.

For detailed information about the ETIAS travel authorization, click HERE.

- top -

Links within this page: Funding Information | Application Overview | Key Dates | Maximum Award Amounts | Application Process | Eligibility Requirements | Eligible Expenses | Award Notification | Contact | Contributors

Funding Information

ISCB is pleased to offer conference fellowships, including registration waivers for virtual participants, for students and postdoctoral fellows to present a talk or poster at the conference. Funding sources for Conference Fellowships are very limited and we regret that we are not able to fund all applicants. The conference organizers are committed to providing support to as many eligible applicants as possible. Conference Fellowship consideration is based on membership and accepted work.

Conference Fellowship Application Invitations are sent directly to eligible individuals after acceptance of scientific submissions to Proceedings, Abstracts, and/or Posters.

- top -

Application Overview

1. The submitting author will be sent the invitation and is responsible for getting the invitation to the presenting author if the work is not being presented by the submitting author;
2. Applicant must be a current member of ISCB prior to submitting an application. The membership must be valid through the calendar year;
3. Applicant must be listed as an author and be the presenter of an accepted Oral or Poster presentation (Late Poster submissions are ineligible for a fellowship) in order to be eligible to apply for conference fellowship funds
4. All applicants must attend all conference days and secure additional funding from other sources in order to be able to cover the full costs of attending the conference;
5. The deadline to submit a fellowship application is May 20, 2025. No exceptions will be made.

- top -

Key Dates

- top -

Maximum Award Amounts

The maximum fellowship award is determined based on the geographical location of the applicant and upon submission of appropriate receipts. Please note that funded applicants will only be able to cover approximately 50% of the expense of travel and registration fees with these fellowship amounts. Thus all applicants must seek and secure additional funding sources (e.g., from your home institution/university, or grant funding). Maximum awards are as follows:

- top -

Application Process

Application is by invitation-only, sent automatically via email to the submitting author of an accepted Proceeding, Abstract Talk, and/or Poster submission (excluding accepted Late Posters). This invitation email will arrive after notification of acceptance of one of these submission types as a separate email. IF YOU HAVE AN ACCEPTED PRESENTATION AND HAVE NOT RECEIVED AN INVITATION BY END OF DAY, ANYWHERE ON EARTH, MAY 14 – PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER AND THEN CONTACT US IF AN INVITATION IS NOT THERE: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Each invitation will include a travel fellowship application URL to link to an application. The application URL must be submitted by the presenting author only, if the qualifying requirements are met. If the submitting author is not the presenting author, it is the responsibility of the submitting author to forward the invitation to the presenting author if the eligibility requirements are met. Each application URL can only be used one time and no application will be accepted after the deadline of May 20, 2025.

- top -

Eligibility Requirements

1. Applicant must be a current ISCB member whose membership does not expire prior to December 31, 2025. Applications will not be accepted from non-members; pending memberships do not qualify and must be paid in full prior to submission of an application.
2. Applicant must be listed as an author or co-author on the original submission of an accepted Proceedings paper, Abstract, or Poster (excluding accepted Late Posters), and, per the requirements of the funding agencies, the funded applicant must be the presenting author of the work. (Submitters to the "Call for Late Posters" are not eligible for fellowship funding.)
3. Applicant must be registered in a degree program (undergraduate or graduate) or as a *post-doctoral research fellow at an accredited educational institution at the time of the conference; early career researcher (low - Upper-Middle Economic countries); post docs and employees of any US federal agency are ineligible for funding using US federal funds - currently we have only US federal funds for this travel fellowship program. (*The period of eligibility for a Post-Doc is five (5) years from the time of their PhD completion date).
4. Applicant must be registered by June 13, 2025, and attend all four conference days. If attendance at the conference is dependent on receipt of fellowship funds, please do not register until after the notification of travel fellowship funding. Any funded applicant failing to register for the conference by June 13, 2025 will automatically forfeit the funds so that another applicant can be awarded from among the original pool of applicants.
5. Applicant must be able to pay all expenses of attending the conference up front, including conference registration fee (as noted in above), travel, accommodations, and meals. Travel Fellowship funding will be provided via the ISCB payment system (bill.com) via secure electronic funds transfer (wire or ACH) approximately 6-8 weeks after the conference. 

- top -

Eligible expenses

Eligible expenses toward fellowship funds include registration for the conference, Student Council Symposium or Tutorials, transportation (air or land transportation from home region to conference city), hotel accommodations (booked within the ISCB official block), and a maximum of $250.00 in meal expenses. In order to receive the full-awarded amount, receipts for registration, transportation, and hotel accommodations that equal or exceed the awarded amount are required.

- top -

Notification

Applicants will be notified no later than May 31, 2025 of the funding status. In some cases applicants may be notified they are on a waitlist for funding, which means that ISCB is fully expecting but still awaiting the formal confirmation of our grant award from one or more granting agency, and that awarding of those funds will not be possible until the grant needed to fund the travel fellowship is confirmed. Any waitlisted applicant that is eventually awarded funds will be offered the opportunity to register at the early registration rate, therefore, please do not register for the conference if your attendance is fully dependent on being awarded a travel fellowship as any cancellation of an applicant's registration will be subject to the full regular registration cancellation policy.

Funded applicants will be required to present evidence of their eligibility status (such as student identification card) when signing in with the Conference Fellowships Desk to record their attendance. In all cases, funds will be mailed to funded applicants after the conference per the details noted in Eligibility Requirements above.

- top -

Contacts

Questions regarding fellowships should be addressed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The information on this page is subject to change without notice, and all changed information will be considered final for the purposes of awarding and funding of Conference Fellowships.

- top -

Contributors

The Conference Fellowships are made possible by generous donations from:

- top -

ISCB recognizes that many of our members have personal care responsibilities that can present a challenge to attending scientific conferences, and hence interfere with career advancement. We also recognize that you know best how to care for your own dependents and what their needs are.

Accordingly, ISCB offers Dependent Care grants in the amount of $600 USD to as many eligible candidates as allowed by available funding to be used towards expenses that will facilitate the member’s attendance.

Candidate eligibility

• Be an ISCB member in good standing (active membership at the time of the application and during the conference).
• Have a submission accepted for presentation in which the candidate is the presenting author. Any presentation is eligible, but priority will be given to members presenting talks.
• Be a primary caregiver (the one that cares more than 50% of the time) of a child or dependent adult at the time of the conference
  
  • Alternatively, the award can be used if the member needs caregiving assistance during the conference
• Priority will be given to applicants who have a demonstrated need and/or are in early stages of their academic careers (e.g., graduate students, postdocs), as well as ISCB members working in non-high-income countries.

Eligible expenses include (but are not limited to) providing airfare for your child or for a caregiver to accompany you and attend functions with you if needed, costs for childcare at home while you are away (be it professionally provided or costs related to having a relative fly to provide care), or extra help paying for on-site care. Awardees can spend this money as they think best.

Applicants will be asked to provide:

• Career stage (undergraduate student/graduate student/postdoctoral researcher/non-tenured faculty/tenured faculty/unemployed).
• Age of dependents, if applicable.
• Description of role as caregiver for a dependent adult, child, or relative; or needs for personal assistance.
• A brief justification of the need for this award and how the award will be used (300 words max).

Payments will be sent promptly following the completion of the meeting after the awardee submits proof of attendance.

Submission deadline: May 30, 2025
Notifications will be sent by June 6, 2025

- top -

We are seeking event staff applications. Event Staff must be ISCB members with memberships expiring on or after the last day of the conference.

Event staff are expected to assist as scheduled for approximately 20 - 24 hours during the conference (generally for a shift of 5 - 6 hours each day).
Event staff are asked to participate in a training session in the afternoon of Saturday, July 19. The session will last approximately 90 minutes.
Event staff should be available for scheduled shifts on all dates beginning the first day of the conference, through the end of the conference. A schedule of shift allocations will be provided prior to the conference start date.

In return for working as event staff, those selected are provided with a complimentary conference registration, time-based pay, and a conference T-shirt. Regarding registration, we ask that you DO NOT register in advance, we will send a code for your registration after decisions have been made. If you are not selected, a discount code will be sent to you to allow you to register at the early bird rate.

Some event staff roles:

• Technical Moderator (TM) - responsible for assisting the speakers in loading their presentations on the laptop, managing the audio and visual recording of presentations from the room in the virtual platform, moderate the online chatroom and answer attendee questions as needed. Assist the Scientific Session Moderator as required.
• Room Monitor (RM) - monitor the doors once the session starts to ensure late arriving delegates enter quietly. Track and record the number of delegates for each session and submit them to ISCB staff. Provide back up to the TM as needed.
• Information Desk (ID) - assist delegates with general questions related to the venue and the conference to include room directions, programme timeline and details, and social activities.
• Registration Desk (RD) - assist by handing out delegate badges and additional items as needed, ensuring the orderly and smooth operation of the registration area and flow of delegate item collection.
• Poster Hall (PH) - set up poster numbers, provide pins, directions, and other questions about posters as required by attendees and ISCB staff.

In addition to above specific roles, all event staff are asked to assist with general conference items such as directions and other duties as required.

Application deadline is Friday, May 9, 2025.
Notifications will be sent on Friday, May 23, 2025.

Click here to submit an application