ISTA '24

Isomass Student Travel Award 2024 (ISTA ’24)

Details of the Award

Eligibility

Be a final-year undergraduate student, or postgraduate or master or doctoral student in any year enrolled to a higher education program full or part time in Canada at the time of your application and be residing in Canada.

Be engaged in research and development in the field of chemical, environmental, geological, health, physical and toxicological sciences, or a closely related field.

Demonstrate technical development in the field of mass spectrometry in your research or a proposal on how technical development would help to develop research. Techniques include but not limited to GC-MS, HPLC-MS, ICP-MS, TIMS, IRMS, Noble gas MS and tandem mass spectrometry.

Research, partially or in full, must not be accepted for publication in any peer-reviewed journal. Proposals must not be in the review stage of any grant, fellowship, studentship or similar applications in Canada, prior to the submission deadline of the Award. E-prints of the work cannot be available. This applies even if the work is under the name other than that of the student entering the competition and relationships can be drawn up with reasonable effort.

How much is the Award and what can it be used for?

The Award provides up to $1000 CAD to be used until the end of the next calendar year.

The Award can be used to cover expenses of any conference, workshop or seminar attendance, research exchange visit or similar activities, in-person or virtually, to present research or a proposal.

Eligible expenses include conference registration, daily meals and childcare if the activity organiser offers such, abstract submission fee, travel and accommodation.

Ineligible costs are expenses related to fieldwork and social events. Daily meals and childcare costs associated with a scientific event if the activity organiser does not offer such are ineligible.

Application

Applicants must send their application to grant@isomass.com with the subject line ‘ISTA 24 application’ by 11:59 pm September 30, 2024. Announcement will be made before October 30, 2024.

Applicants must submit an abstract (2 pages) of original research or a proposal, with technical content, a statement (1 page) and a letter from the supervisor (1 page), in English, as a single .pdf file.

The abstract can contain up to 600 words, including lay summary (80 words), main text, citations, references and acknowledgements but excluding title, authors’ name, their affiliation(s), contact details, figure and/or table captions and legends. The abstract must be free of header. Footer must have page numbers, and the name of the student entering the competition. No more than 2 display items that can be the combination of figures and tables, no more than 10 references. At least 2 cm margins, main text at least 11 pt font size, others at least 10 pt font size. The corresponding Author must be the student entering the competition.

The Author’s statement must state that the work meets the eligibility criteria, that all co-authors have agreed to the submission and agreed that the corresponding Author enters the ISTA ’24 competition and all supports received for the work have been acknowledged in the Abstract and that the authors and the supervisor read and agreed to the Terms and Conditions of the Award.

A supporting letter from the supervisor must be written on company letterhead, stating that the student is under their supervision and that opportunity will be provided for the student to use the Award. The letter must declare the relationship with Isomass Scientific Inc. if any, and state that entering the ISTA ’24 competition is independent from any relationship between the parties and that any outcome of the competition will make no impact on any future relationship. If there is a third party involved, the conflict-of-interest statement must be extended to the third party too. See also Third Party.

The supervisor who provides the letter of support must be the primary supervisor or the principal supervisor within Canada of the student who enters the competition.

The application must be sent from an e-mail address hosted by a Canadian institution. Applications sent from personal e-mail addresses or from e-mail addresses hosted by a foreign entity will not be considered.

Authorship

The number of Authors of the abstract are not limited.

For single-authored abstracts, the student entering the competition for the Award must be the Author.

For multiple-authored abstracts, the student must be the corresponding author. The order of the Authors and the order of their affiliation(s) is irrelevant to the Award.

The work submitted should follow the guidelines on co-authorship of the institution the student is enrolled in (e.g. Contributor Roles Taxonomy or CRediT system). Isomass Scientific Inc. is unable to advise on co-authorship related issues.

No person who are currently employed by either Isomass Scientific Inc. or Thermo Fisher Scientific or any of their associated companies can be author or co-author of the work submitted for the Award.

Writing of the application materials, languages

All documents must be written by humans. The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies can only be used to improve readability and language. Applying such technologies should be done with human oversight. The application of AI technology is not limited when it is used in data interpretation.

All documents must be written in English. The synopsis of the abstract can have a version in French either before or after the English version of the synopsis, but it counts towards the total word count of 600. The synopsis in French must not exceed 80 words and the total word count of the two versions of the synopsis (English and French) cannot exceed 160 words.

Students whose English language is not their first language may consider the input of someone or a group of people of their choice or AI assisted technology, for editing the work. For example, supervisors, colleagues, and fellow students may help the student to edit the application materials. No declaration is needed. However, paid English language editing service is not necessary and is not acceptable.

Third party

The student can submit their work that has been carried out jointly with a third party. A third party can be any educational or research institute or industrial company. The student may be in connection with a third party via an internship, apprenticeship, industrial placement, summer placement, part time or full-time job (given that the eligibility criteria of studentship have been met) or similar.

The third party cannot be Isomass Scientific Inc. or Thermo Fisher Scientific or any of their associated companies. If a third party is involved, the conflict-of-interest statement written by the supervisor must cover the relationship between the third party and Isomass Scientific Inc.

Review Process

Works will be evaluated based on their originality, novelty, significance, clarity and the level and complexities of technical development only. The level at which the student is (undergraduate, graduate, master, postgraduate, doctorate) is irrelevant to the Award. For details, please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the Award.

Claiming the Award

The Isomass Student Travel Award can be claimed from Isomass Scientific Inc. on reimbursement basis by the Award winner. For more details, please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the Award.

Publication and Acknowledgement of the Award

The Award-winning abstract in full will be made available. The Isomass Student Travel Award must be acknowledged by the recipient. For more details, please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the Award.

Confidentiality statement

Works submitted to Isomass Scientific Inc. under the Isomass Student Travel Award 2024 will be handled with full confidentiality. No works will be made available to anyone who is not employed by Isomass Scientific Inc. Exception is when an external reviewer is invited to review the work. In this case, the external reviewer will sign a confidentiality agreement prior to the review. Only the Award winner’s full work will be made public.

Conflict of interest statement

Isomass Scientific Inc. is the sole distributor of certain Thermo Fisher Scientific’s mass spectrometers within Canada. Work will be evaluated based on their originality, novelty, significance, clarity and the level and complexities of technical development only. Neither works submitted to the Isomass Student Travel Award 2024 that has been carried out using any analytical instrument or any part or consumable that Isomass Scientific Inc. sold to the group, nor that of from prospective customers will be favorably evaluated against others. Works that have been carried out or proposed to be carried out on mass spectrometers that are manufactured and/or distributed in Canada by any of the competitors of Isomass Scientific Inc. will not be evaluated less favorably than others. Isomass Scientific Inc. will consider the ISTA ’24 to be completely independent of any existing or future relationship with anyone.

Diversity statement

Isomass Scientific Inc. encourages everyone to apply to the Isomass Student Travel Award 2024, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or ethnical background, nationality or national background, disability, religion or belief, race, sex, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristics and political view. Students whose English is not their first language are encouraged to apply and will not be judged less favorably due to language considerations.

Terms and Conditions of the Award

Application and eligibility

The eligibility criteria with respect to the student and the work submitted must be fully met. Formal requirements of the work and requirements for the supervisor must be fully met. Other requirements of the application must be fully met.

The supervisor must provide contact details, and the supervisor must be responsive if Isomass Scientific Inc. reaches out in relation to the Award.

Applications submitted for the Award of which content is generally not different from another work from the same research group with identical or fully or partly different Authors or order of Authors, will not be considered for the Award. In this case the application received first will be considered only. If that work is considered published, the work submitted to the ISTA ’24 will not be considered.

Only one application per student will be accepted. Correction to an application already submitted cannot be made. If a new application is received from the same student, the earliest version will be considered.

Applications received after the application deadline will not be considered.

Isomass Scientific Inc. has strict ethical standards and will not consider publishing content that is deemed inappropriate. Consequently, if the work contains any inappropriate content (language, media, etc.), the work will not be considered for the Award.

Only one Award will be issued in the 2024 round.

The Award can be used in connection with any other funding the student may have.

Acknowledgment of receipt of applications submitted for the ISTA ‘24 will be provided by Isomass Scientific Inc. in response to the application, in writing, within 1 business day of receiving the application.

Review process and confidentiality

Review of submitted works that meet the requirements will begin as they arrive. Ineligible works will not be reviewed. If it turns out that the student or the work is not eligible for the Award and/or the Terms and Conditions of the Award was breached anytime between review and announcement of the Award, the work will not be considered further for the competition.

Review of works submitted will be carried out by an expert panel.

Review of the work submitted will primarily be reviewed internally only. Occasionally, the input of an external reviewer may be requested by Isomass Scientific Inc. In this case, the identity of the Authors and their affiliation(s) will not be revealed to the Reviewer, nor the Reviewer’s identity is to be revealed to the Authors (e.g. double-blind review). The external Reviewer will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to sending materials to them. No review report will be made available either to the student entering the competition nor their group (including third parties).

On top of the double-blind review, Isomass Scientific Inc. will make all effort to avoid conflict and bias when selecting an external reviewer if needed by setting the following criteria: No external reviewer can be the co-author and/or the supervisor of any student entering the competition. The external reviewer must not have papers published with the student in the last 5 years, they cannot be in the same institution(s) as the student, they cannot be relatives of any kind of the student or their supervisors.

Competitors of the Award or their group, including a third party (if applicable) are not going to be provided with any opportunity to see the work of others.

Isomass Scientific Inc. will make all efforts to detect plagiarism of the work submitted for the Award. This may include the use of specific software or AI assisted technology. If significant plagiarism is detected, the corresponding Author or their supervisor may be contacted to defend their work as an opportunity to stay in the competition. If the plagiarism is deemed indefensible by Isomass Scientific Inc. the work will not be considered further for the Award.

Responsibility of the student

Isomass Scientific Inc. will use the e-mail address of the corresponding Author, provided in the Abstract, to contact the corresponding Author of the winning work. If Isomass Scientific Inc. is unable to reach the corresponding Author via that e-mail after the 3rd attempt within 30 days of the announcement of the Award, Isomass Scientific Inc. will consider the Award to be declined by the recipient. In such a scenario, another winner will be announced. The student can choose to decline the Award voluntarily within this time, in which case another winner will be announced.

The Award-winning student must declare acceptance of the Award within 30 days of Isomass Scientific Inc. has reached out to them first time if the student wants to use the Award.

The Award-winning student must present research or proposal at the scientific event(s) they wish to use to Award to go to. Co-authorship only is not acceptable. If the Award is used for more than one scientific event, the student must present research or proposal in all events. The work submitted for the Award and the work to be presented in the scientific event(s) do not have to be the same or similar.

The Award must be acknowledged. See also Acknowledgement of the Award.

The student must provide proof 30 days after the scientific event has taken place that they presented research or proposal at the scientific event(s) the Award was used to go to.

Responsibility of the supervisor

Writing and providing a signed copy of the supporting letter, written on company letterhead, including the conflict-of-interest statement (that may or may not include any third party) to the student entering the competition is the responsibility of the supervisor.

Claim of the Award

The Award can only be claimed and used by the student who has won the Award. The Award cannot be transferred. If the Award winner has changed their name between their application and the claim of the Award, proof of name change must be submitted to Isomass Scientific Inc. along with the claim.

The Isomass Student Travel Award can be claimed from Isomass Scientific Inc. on reimbursement basis by the Award winner. The Award may be used to cover the cost of more than one activity.

Invoice(s) date sent to Isomass Scientific Inc. for claiming the Award and the date of claim made in writing to Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot be later than December 31 of the following year the Award was awarded.

If invoice(s) submitted to Isomass Scientific Inc. has an amount greater than $1000 (one thousand Canadian dollar), only $1000 (one thousand Canadian dollar) will be reimbursed.

The Award can be used by the student even after their studentship has matured.

Isomass Scientific Inc. is not responsible for the use of the Award. Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot recommend any scientific event to the student.

Claims can be made either prior to or after the scientific event(s) or travel or stay, as long as invoices are provided in time.

Invoices must be submitted in writing, to claim the Award. Instructions will be provided to the award-winning student only.

Invoices submitted to Isomass Scientific Inc. to claim the Award must clearly show the name of the Award-winning student and their current institution. The current institution may be different from the one the student was studying at the time of their application. No personal address on the invoice is acceptable. For group bookings (including group registration, group travel, group accommodation), the invoice may or may not be under the name of the award-winning student but invoices must clearly show the proportion of the money spent for the award-winning student.

If invoice(s) is in a currency other than Canadian dollar, the invoice may be paid by Isomass Scientific Inc. in Canadian dollar either on the basis on the foreign currency/Canadian dollar exchange rate on the day of the invoice was issued, determined by QuickBook via IHS Markit or the student may choose to submit a proof of transaction issued by their Canadian bank, in which the exact figure minus foreign exchange charges and minus any other charges imposed by any institution or person other than the provider of the scientific event or travel or accommodation provider is shown and can be directly linked to the invoice(s) submitted to Isomass Scientific Inc.

If it turns out that the student or the work is not eligible for the Award and/or the Terms and Conditions of the Award was breached anytime between the acceptance of the Award by the student and fulfillment of the claim(s) by Isomass Scientific Inc., Isomass Scientific Inc. will not pay out the Award.

Invoices that have been paid by Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot be claimed back by Isomass Scientific Inc.

Refund policy

If the event for which the student wishes to use the Award to go to and/or any travel, accommodation, or others of which cost is deemed eligible is cancelled or the student no longer wishes to attend/travel/stay, etc. for any reason AND the student received refund of eligible expenses after Isomass Scientific Inc. has paid out the Award, the student must refund the Award in full to Isomass Scientific Inc. The Award may be reused by the student for another event prior to the deadline of the invoice and claim. See also Claim of the Award.

If the event for which the student wishes to use the Award to go to and/or any travel, accommodation, or others of which cost is deemed eligible is cancelled or the student no longer wishes to attend/travel/stay etc. for any reason AND the student does not receive refund of eligible expenses after Isomass Scientific Inc. has paid out the Award, Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot accommodate any further claims with respect to ISTA ‘24.

Publication of the Award

The Award-winning abstract in full will be made available on Isomass Scientific Inc.’s website. Further, the lay summary of the abstract (in both languages, if applicable), along with title, Authors’ name and their affiliation(s) will be published in Isomass Scientific Inc.’s newsletters, social media accounts including but not limited to LinkedIn, Twitter and on conference materials (i.e. posters, talks) and marketing materials, for an indefinite period of time.

Isomass Scientific Inc. will not make any changes to the Abstract (including spelling errors of names) and Isomass Scientific Inc. is therefore not responsible for any errors in the Abstract.

Acknowledgement of the Award

The Isomass Student Travel Award 2024 must be acknowledged by the recipient in any research or proposal output (publication, poster, talk, etc.) for which the Award provided a financial support, in writing, stating the name of the Award ‘Isomass Student Travel Award 2024’ or ‘ISTA ’24 and the amount ($1000). The official logo of Isomass Scientific Inc. must be used on any research output where possible. The logo will be provided to the award-winning student only.

Rights and liability

Isomass Scientific Inc. is not liable for the content of any work that has been submitted for the Award. The content of the work submitted is the responsibility of the student (e.g. the corresponding Author).

Students, co-Authors, supervisors and third parties (if applicable) renounce their right to appeal against any decision by Isomass Scientific Inc. with respect to the handling of the Award and works submitted to the Award, including but not limited to the review process, the decision on the winning work and the exclusion of works.

Isomass Scientific Inc. will retain the right to cancel the Award prior to the submission deadline.

Isomass Scientific Inc. will not announce a winner of the Award if there are less than three applicants and/or are less than three works that meet standards expected from a Canadian higher education institution. In any of these cases, Isomass Scientific Inc. will inform the applicants.

Breaking the Terms and Conditions of the Award by the student or their supervisor or their third party (if applicable) will result in the decline of refunding invoices and an expulsion of the student from future competitions advertised by Isomass Scientific Inc.

Competitors of the Award and their group, including a third party (if applicable) are not going to be provided with any opportunity to see the work of others.

No review report will be made available either to the student entering the competition or their group (including third parties).

Isomass Scientific Inc. will follow its own policy and measures in place for handling research or research proposal data and data security. In case of a data leak, Isomass Scientific Inc. will make every reasonable effort to reduce damage, but Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot be held liable for damages caused by a data leak.

Isomass Scientific Inc. will make all reasonable efforts to detect a fraud, especially with respect to fraudulent claims. However, in the unfortunate event when Isomass Scientific Inc. did not have sufficient resources to detect a fraudulent claim and paid out the Award to someone other than the student who won the Award, Isomass Scientific Inc. is not liable for the fraud and further claims cannot be made.

Invoices that have been paid by Isomass Scientific Inc. cannot be claimed back by Isomass Scientific Inc.