Overview:

Funded by the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Cycle for Sight event, the Visiting Scholar Award Opportunity provides support for a McPherson ERI Member to host a Visiting Scholar for 3-7 days at their institution. These visits are intended to facilitate lasting collaborations and/or training in support of broadly vision-related research, including bioengineering, technology development, imaging, data visualization, cognitive psychology and/or neuroscience, ophthalmology, and general biology of the eye. Each Visiting Scholar will also participate in one event on the UW-Madison campus that is organized or co-organized by the host and that can be attended by McPherson ERI members and Trainees (e.g., a lecture, a seminar series talk, a workshop, roundtable discussion). (If the host’s institution is NOT UW-Madison, it is still required that the host use a portion of their awarded funds to bring the Visiting Scholar to UW-Madison to satisfy the requirement that they participate in a UW campus event.)

For each visiting scholar, funds of up to $3000 will be available to support the costs of travel, lodging, and meals (which can include, if the hosts so wishes, pizza and refreshments for their visitor’s lecture on campus). Awarded funds are given to the host (not directly to the visitor), and it is the responsibility of the host to work with MERI administration to book the visitor’s travel and lodgings. If hosts are at UW-Madison, for some expenses they may use their P-card (later reconciled using a MERI funding string) and e-reimbursement so long as those expenses have been approved by MERI administration. All travel by the Visiting Scholar must be completed sometime between March 1 and late December of the year the applicant (i.e., host) was notified that they won the award.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible for a Visiting Scholar Award, you must…

• …be a McPherson ERI member (if you are not already a member, please submit a membership application in advance of your award application. Further information about MERI membership is available here.)

• …be willing to host the Visiting Scholar at your institution for a total of at least three full days (four nights), but no longer than one week

• …be willing to host the Visiting Scholar at your institution sometime between March 1 and late December of the year in which you are notified that you’ve won the Visiting Scholar Award. Carryover of an unused award is not permitted. (If for any reason an applicant becomes aware that they cannot host the Visiting Scholar, they must notify McPherson ERI administration so that the award can be reallocated.)

• …be willing to organize or co-organize an event on the UW-Madison campus involving the Visiting Scholar that can be attended by McPherson ERI members and Trainees (even if your home institution, and hence the primary location of the Visiting Scholar’s visit, is not UW-Madison) .

NOTE: McPherson ERI members at institutions other than UW-Madison can be invited to UW–Madison as Visiting Scholars.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply for a Visiting Scholars Award you will need to submit as a combined, single PDF:

1. The completed application form provided using single-spaced text, Arial font no smaller than 11 point, and page margins of 0.5 inches. The form must be signed by the applicant (i.e., the host).

2. A message/letter from the invited visitor indicating his/her commitment to visit UW-Madison for at least 3 days (or if you are at a different institution, a commitment to visit your institution for at least 3 days AND UW-Madison for at least 1 day to participate in an on-campus event) sometime between March 1 – late December. Confirmation of the invited visitor’s understanding that he/she has committed to a visit is essential.

3. A copy of the prospective Visiting Scholar’s CV or biosketch (five-page maximum)

Finally, if you are not already a McPherson ERI Member you must also submit a McPherson ERI Membership application. Please send your membership application as a separate document and do not combine it with the other required documents above.

All materials should be submitted to Dr. Jonathan Lang (jonathanlang@wisc.edu). When submitting, format your email subject line as follows:

VS Award Application: [your last name], [your first name]