Travel Grant: Enabling Faculty at Under-Resourced Primarily Undergraduate Institutions to Attend the 2024 Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting

This award will initiate a Travel Grant program for faculty from typically under-resourced institutions, such as Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and community colleges. Faculty at these institutions often have higher teaching loads and do not have access to significant travel funds, making it more difficult for them to attend scientific conferences. Attendance at conferences allows faculty to establish connections to other researchers and bring back the latest innovations in research and teaching to their classrooms. The American Geophysical Union’s (AGU’s) Fall Meeting is a large gathering of Geoscience professionals, with >22,000 attendees from 100+ countries. This award will initiate a Travel Grant program for up to 50 early-to-mid career faculty from under-resourced institutions to attend the 2024 Fall AGU meeting. The application process will be similar to the current AGU student travel program and advertising for the program will be conducted across multiple avenues. In addition to a travel stipend, the travel grant awardees will have the opportunity to participate in a professional development workshop, networking and social events, co-chair sessions at the conference, and review student presentations. There will be pre- and post-event evaluation surveys and one or more journal articles will result from the award. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.