Every year, a number of high-profile international meetings bring together world-class scientists working on the development and acceptance of 3R alternatives to animal testing (Replacement, Reduction or Refinement). Costs linked to participation may prevent students with promising work from attending these events. The EPAA partners proudly sponsor the 3Rs Student grants to facilitate the participation of students in such events.

The jury will comprise 4 representatives of the EPAA Steering Committee (2 from the Industry and two from the European Commission) who will judge the applications.
For each of the eligible events, a lump sum of €1500 is available. 2 levels of grants are offered by the EPAA partners: half grant and full grant.

• A half grant covers the reimbursement of the event registration fees for the student as well as travel and accommodation fees, on the basis of the expense receipts up to a maximum of €500.
• A full grant covers the reimbursement of the event registration fees for the student as well as travel and accommodation fees, up to a maximum total amount of €1000, on the basis of the expense receipts.

Eligibility 

Eligibility criteria for both students and events are defined as follows. Applications outside of this scope are void.

Students

1) Applicants have to be based (i.e. studying) in one of the EU countries. Citizenship may be from any country (i.e. also outside of the EU).
2) Applicants must be graduated (BSc / First cycle completed with at least 180 ECTS credits) when applying and should not have a doctoral degree.
3) Applicants must still be considered as full-time students when applying.
4) No funding or reimbursement by another entity for the same student and event is allowed.

Events 

Selected high-profiled scientific meetings are eligible for the EPAA 3Rs student grants. The eligible events will be announced on the EPAA website in autumn each year for the following year. Only events that take place in the EU+EEA area will be included. For 2019, the following events are selected for application:

Application and selection process

Application process follows the following approach:

1) Applications must be sent to EPAA functional mailbox (grow‐epaa@ec.europa.eu) by midnight of the day indicated above
2) The Award will be granted provided an abstract is accepted for an oral presentation. At the sole discretion of the Jury, in exceptional cases work presented in a poster format will be eligible, too. EPAA visibility must be granted by including a clear acknowledgment of EPAA’s support in the presentation/poster.

Selection will be made by the jury on the basis of the following documents to be provided by the applicant:

• Abstract submitted for one of the selected events
• Detailed CV of the applicant with list of publications (if any)
• Cover letter describing why the work described in the abstract is important for the 3Rs and why it should be supported by the EPAA grant
• Recommendation letter from a professor/supervisor also confirming the applicant is a full-time student
• Proof of acceptance to the event (i.e. invitation to the event or confirmation mail)

Enquiries should be directed to grow‐epaa@ec.europa.eu