Terms & Conditions for Predoctoral Trainees

Stipend:  The fellowship provides a stipend of $20,772 ($1,731 per month) for the 2007/2008 academic year. The stipend may be augmented by salary for other activities from a nonfederal source (or a federal source with prior approval from both the federal source and NIH, see PHS guidelines).

Going on leave: Trainees who decide to go on leave during their period of support may do so for up to 6 months and resume grant support upon their return. Please contact Brian Giebel (bgiebel [at] u.washington.edu) to make arrangements. While exceptions are possible under unusual circumstances, trainees who end up being away for longer than 6 months typically are not added back to the grant upon their return.

Travel:  The fellowship provides $800 per year to each trainee to assist with the cost of travel to scientific conferences (when the trainee is presenting a poster or giving a talk) or collaborating laboratories (when the training is not available at the UW).

Please be sure to read through these instructions before making any travel arrangements

To book your travel:

The department must pay for flights and conference registration up front. Please do not pay for these items on your own and then ask to be reimbursed.

Once you have checked in with Brian Giebel (bgiebel [ a t ] u.washington.edu) and are ready to book your travel, please follow the steps below. If you plan to take personal time before or after the conference, please let Brian know before you book your flights, since this may complicate things, particularly if it results in a higher airfare.

Contact the current agency of choice, Tangerine Travel (http://www.vacation.tangerinetravel.com/group+and+corporate+travel/). Please be sure to let them know this will be paid by UW Genome Sciences.  Once you’ve been emailed an itinerary, please send this to Brian - or have the travel agent include him on the initial email - so that he may fill out the purchase order paperwork.

To pay for your conference registration, provide the registration info needed (either to fill out a form or enroll online) to Brian.

Reimbursement:

Please note that we will need a copy of your flight itinerary and conference schedule in order to process any reimbursements.

Lodging and meals will be reimbursed after your return from the conference.

Meals will only be reimbursed if they are not provided by the conference, and will be reimbursed at standard per diem rates (http://www.washington.edu/admin/travel/contracts.html#meal.lodging.rates). Since per diem rates are used, you do not need to save meal receipts. If you choose to skip a conference dinner, etc, you cannot be reimbursed for that particular meal.

If your lodging costs are higher than the allowable per diem rate, please include a brief explanation (e.g. it was the designated conference hotel, only place you could find space, etc) along with your receipts.You will need to provide receipts for ground transportation.

Tuition:  The award provides tuition operating fees. Trainees are expected to obtain Washington residency status by the end of their first year of support. The student is responsible for certain student fees and a U-PASS (if desired) each quarter. These quarterly fees amount to approximately $200.

Health Insurance:  The award covers self-only insurance costs through the UW Graduate Appointee Insurance Plan. Trainees will need to enroll on the WPAS (insurance plan administrator) website. Additional insurance for dependents may be purchased as an out-of-pocket expense.

Full-time Training and University of Washington Registration:  Predoctoral trainees must be registered for a minimum of 10 credits for AU, WI, and SP quarters, and 2 credits for SU quarter, as required by the graduate school. Trainees are required by the NIH to pursue research training (research, independent study, coursework) on a full-time basis, devoting at least 40 hours a week to the program.

Taxability of stipends:  The awardee is responsible for determining his/her tax liability. The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (543-8576) offers yearly tax preparation workshops.

Continued support:  Awardees may apply for an additional year of support contingent upon satisfactory academic and research progress and a genomics-related research program compatible with the goals of the training grant. Funding guidelines have recently changed and predoctoral trainees are typically supported for no more than two years.

Citizenship:  The training fellowships are available only to citizens of the United States or foreign nationals holding Permanent Resident Visas (alien registration receipt card I-151 or I-551).

Research ethics:  Fellowship awardees are required under the terms of the training grant to attend ethics training provided by the Department of Genome Sciences. This training generally takes place during Spring Quarter each year; trainees are not required to attend until they begin their third year of graduate school. Trainees who have previously attended the Biomedical Research ethics series sponsored by the School of Medicine are exempt from this requirement.

Course requirements:  Trainees are expected to complete a course load that will provide them with a broad background in genomics. They are also required to regularly attend a seminar series (for instance, the Genome Sciences seminar series) that will cover both current research in the trainee’s area and increase the trainee’s knowledge of other areas of genomic research, as well as a journal club/research-in-progress series as part of their training. All trainees are required to attend any mini-symposia organized for GTG trainees and faculty. Continued support is contingent on active participation in these series. Elective courses are required as specified by a student's home department.

Does your project include human or animal subjects?  If so, please provide the existing protocol # and approval date or contact the Genome Training Grant assistant if this needs to be set up.