As part of its portfolio of journal awards, MDPI is proud to offer its Travel Award: a unique award aimed at boosting the profile of early career researchers.

The MDPI Travel Award was created to give junior scientists the opportunity to present their latest research at an academic conference of their choosing.

Conferences provide an incredible opportunity for early career academics to boost the visibility of their research. In addition to being surrounded by tenured academics, presenting at conferences offers early career researchers feedback on their work and the opportunity to share their findings with peers.

The Travel Award works to remove the barriers preventing young scholars from attending conferences, including financial and geographical factors.

Here, we outline the important selection criteria, prizes, and share some testimonials from some recent Travel Award winners.

Selection criteria and eligibility

The Travel Award continues MDPI’s dedication towards supporting early career researchers. Accordingly, its eligibility requirements ensure that individuals at the start of their career are duly targeted.

Key requirements include:

• Recipient must be a postdoctoral fellows or PhD student;
• Plans to attend an international conference in the upcoming year.

During the application process, potential awardees must provide the following documents:

• Information of the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted;
• Curriculum Vitae and list of publications;
• Justification letter describing the focus of the research;
• Letter of recommendation from the supervisor, research director, or department head, which also confirms the applicant’s status.

You can find journal-specific information regarding selection criteria and eligibility on the MDPI Awards page, or on the respective journals’ homepages.

Prizes

For many early career researchers, the opportunity to present their work at an academic conference is a priceless opportunity. Nonetheless, attending a conference can be a costly endeavour.

This is particularly true for academics in the early stages of their career. In addition to conference entry fees, many events may require travelling. Some conferences may offer reductions on entry fees for students, but travelling and accommodation expenses often have to be covered completely by the attendee.

The Travel Award’s monetary prize seeks to alleviate financial burdens and presents winners with the opportunity to attend conferences which may have been otherwise restricted to them.

Winners of the Travel Award can expect to receive:

• A monetary prize (often ranging from CHF 500 to 800);
• A certificate

Additionally, some MDPI journals provide Travel Award winners with complete or partially discounted article processing charges (APCs).

Complete or partially discounted APCs give scholars the opportunity to publish within the MDPI journal providing the award. Publishing with MDPI allows early career academics to enjoy the benefits of the Open Access publishing model. For early career researchers, increased research visibility and citations can prove particularly helpful.

Testimonials

MDPI is dedicated to boosting communication amongst scientists and raising the profile of early career academics. To aid this, MDPI frequently interviews with its recent award winners. Here, we have collated some testimonials from some of its Travel Award winners.

A PhD student at the Medical University of South Carolina, USA, Hannah Torolli had the opportunity to share her research during a presentation at the International Cardiovascular Development, Anatomy, and Regeneration (ICDAR) Meeting, which took place in Granada, Spain.

“As a contributing author on a published manuscript in JCDD, I receive email updates, which is where I initially heard about the award. Given the unknowns and uncertainties of the current funding situation, I wanted to apply for this award. The conference I am therefore able to attend is very collaborative and extremely applicable to the research I do.” – Ms. Hannah Torolli, JCDD (ISSN 2308-3425) Travel Award Winner.

Dr. David Martí Aguado is a hepatologist at Clinic University Hospital of Valencia, Spain. As the winner of the Biomedicines Travel Award, he attended the EASL SLD Summit 2025 held in Estoril, Portugal.

“I actively participated in the conference by presenting my latest research advances in steatotic liver disease. I also had the opportunity to work with international liver researchers from different backgrounds and with several perspectives, who helped me to improve my teamwork and fuel my knowledge with the most cutting-edge information.” – Dr. David Martí Aguado, Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059) Travel Award Winner.

MDPI’s commitment to supporting researchers

Awards allow MDPI to give back to the academic community, especially early career researchers. They increase the visibility of their research, encourage open communication between scientists, and highlight outstanding achievements.

Alongside the Travel Award, MDPI offers a series of other journal awards, such as the Outstanding Reviewer Award, Young Investigator Award, Best Paper Award, and more.

Read our article covering everything you need to know about MDPI’s awards program; alternatively, you can visit the MDPI awards webpage for more information.