+ Eligibility Requirements

Essential criteria:

• Any undergraduate student who is completing studies in Microbiology or related disciplines will be eligible to apply. This includes students who are currently completing Honours or have completed Honours in the same calendar year as the award is offered. Masters by Coursework students completing studies in Microbiology or related disciplines are also encouraged to apply.

• Sponsors (i.e., laboratory heads or alike) must have a track record in Microbiology or a related discipline, including (but not limited to) investigations of the molecular biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physiology, genomics, bioinformatics and host-pathogen interactions involving microorganisms (including the areas of food, industrial, environmental and medical microbiology), epidemiology (as this pertains to infectious disease) and immunology (as this pertains to understanding the immune response towards infectious agents).

• Sponsors must be an ASM member at the time of application

+ Application Requirements

Applicants must contact their respective State Branch to ascertain submission requirements and the deadline date.

Applications will consist of:

• Research project description, including
• Project background and description;
• Aims;
• Methodology; and
• References.
• Sponsor’s letter of support, describing the technical assistance provided to the Applicant.
• Applicant’s CV
• Applicant’s Statement of Interest and Motivation

+ Conditions of Award

A report on the completed summer research project must be prepared by the Applicant (i.e. student) and provided to the ASM Branch committee within 1 month (i.e. 30 days) of the end of the research project, and no later than March 31st of any given year.

The report must be written as a scientific paper containing the following components:

• Title;
• Abstract (200 words), including author name(s) (student awardee and supervisors) and affiliation(s);
• Background or Introduction
• Methods and materials
• Results;
• Discussion;
• References. These must be used throughout, listed at the end of the report, and should be formatted in the style of the Journal of Bacteriology;
• A photograph of the student, this could be a profile picture or may depict them working in the laboratory;
• The document must be formatted using 2 cm margins, 12 pt font, double spaced throughout, and not exceed five A4 pages.

The abstract of the report and photo should be of sufficient standard to be publishable in the monthly E-Newsletter of the ASM State Branch and in Microbiology Australia.

+ Assessment

Applications will be assessed by a panel of reviewers, selected from the ASM State Branch committee members corresponding to the branch to which application is submitted. A minimum of three (3) reviewers will participate in the assessment of applications each application period. Reviewers with a conflict of interest will be excluded from participating in the assessment of those application(s).