• Reduced registration fees for HUGO events, conferences and training courses
• Annual voting to elect members to HUGO Council
• Access to announcements and information on this website
• Free Access to The HUGO Journal
• Young scientists can apply for the HUGO Travel Award for educational visits
• Rights to nominate and vote at HUGO Council Member Election

HUGO Travel Awards Programme

HUGO's Travel Awards Programme is intended to encourage and assist younger scientists involved in the analysis of the human genome. Specifically, the Travel Award Programme is designed:

• to enable young investigators to travel from their country of residence to a laboratory in another country for the purpose of learning a new method or technique which can then be brought back and introduced to their home laboratory.
• to facilitate collaborative research among laboratories involved in the analysis of the human genome.

The Awards are intended to cover travel costs only. As the awards are designed to stimulate research by supporting short-term (between 2 and 10 weeks) visits to laboratories, applicants must submit a proposed programme of work. Requests for travel support to attend scientific meetings may be considered but only when the meeting has a very strong educational component.

Applicants for the Travel Award Programme should be actively engaged in human genome research and will usually be under 40 years of age. Applicants who do not meet these criteria will need particularly strong support from their sponsoring HUGO member - see (I) below. Please note that the programme is not intended for scientists holding senior positions: rather than applying for themselves, senior scientists should encourage their postdocs and junior fellows to apply.

Applications must be submitted at least ten weeks before a proposed visit: applications submitted retrospectively for travel already undertaken will not be considered.

Applications should consist of:

1) Workplan: this should occupy no more than one single sheet. It should summarise the proposed benchwork and should include reasons for the applicant's choice of laboratory to be visited.

2) Curriculum vitae of the applicant: this should occupy no more than one single sheet and should include a list of recent publications.

3) Details of travel expenses. (See also Note below). An estimate for the cost of the travel by the most economical route should be obtained.

4) A declaration by a HUGO member in support of the application. The person making this supporting declaration must be different from the head of the laboratory being visited, see below.

5) A declaration from the head of the laboratory to be visited (who need not be a HUGO member), stating willingness to accept the applicant and to provide lodging. (See Note below).

6) A letter from the applicant's Head of Department (if this is different from the supporting HUGO member) indicating knowledge and support of the application.

In exceptional cases the Travel Award Committee may request additional information in order to be able to reach a decision. Each application will be considered by three members of the HUGO Travel award Committee, as they are available.

Applicants will be notified about the decision within one month of receipt of the application. Please note that travel tickets should not be purchased before the Award Committee has notified the applicant of its decision and the applicant has received confirmation from the HUGO office.

Membership Fees

The annual membership fee is set at £35 for students and post doctoral fellows. For non-students, the annual membership fee is set at £50.

Annual membership renewal will be sent to members via email every January in each calendar year. Members can choose to renew for that current calendar year or more. Membership period is from 1 January – 31 December 2009.