Conference and Events

We want student members. We want to see as many of you as possible at our annual conferences and offer financial support to make that happen.

And to make our conferences even more exciting, we have Student Speaker and Student poster competitions.

To further links with our Australian colleagues, we also financially support postgrad student exchanges with Australia.

Details below

Student grants-in-aid to attend the NZMS Annual Conference
Current students can apply for a grant-in-aid to attend the Society’s annual conference. Details can be found here, and the application form can be found here.
Note: To be eligible you must join NZMS at least 6 months before the conference, present a paper at the conference (either oral or poster), and be a New Zealand university-registered Honours, Masters or PhD student.

Māori Student and Early Career Researcher grants-in-aid to attend the NZMS Annual Conference

We are pleased to introduce a grant-in-aid for Māori students and researchers up to 8 years post-Phd to attend the Society’s annual conference. Details can be found here, and the application form can be found here

Conference Childcare Grant-In-Aid to attend the NZMS Annual Conference
These funds are intended to provide financial assistance required for NZMS members to support childcare, in whatever mode they deem most appropriate, so that they can more fully attend and participate in our annual meeting.

Details and the application can be found here.

ASM/NZMS Student SPEAKER Award
The aim of this competition is to provide student members of the New Zealand Microbiological Society (NZMS) an opportunity to present their work to a scientific audience at the NZMS Annual Conference and compete for a prize that will allow them to travel to the USA and attend the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) conference held in May or June.

Criteria for Competition Entry

Only New Zealand university-registered Honours, Masters or PhD students are eligible for this competition.
Competition entrants must be NZMS student members and have been a member for the six months preceding the respective NZMS Annual Conference to which they are attending.
They must not have submitted their thesis for examination prior to the NZMS Annual Conference at which they are presenting their research.
Success of the award will also be conditional on ASM accepting the submitted Abstract for some form of presentation.
On completion of the trip and within 21 days, the recipient shall present a 500-800 word written report of their trip for the NZMS newsletter editor.

The complete details for the 2023 NZMS student competition, including the judging criteria and the competition format, can be found on the conference website.

Additional Prize details. The ASM will provide free registration for the student prize winner at the ASM conference of the following year. The free registration for the winner will not be deferred for registration at an ASM conference for any subsequent years save that immediately following the NZMS conference where they are the winner of the winner of the student oral competition (e.g. 2113 student oral competition will only be eligible for attending ASM conference in 2114).

It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that they submit an abstract for the ASM conference in good time. The NZMS will assist in this process to ensure that registration fees are waived. It is also the responsibility of the student to ensure that they have or are readily able to secure the necessary visa requirements to secure temporary entrance to the USA.

The NZMS will fund the travel (normally international and internal flights, economy class only) to the USA and assist in finding accommodation. It will be the responsibility of the student to ensure that all necessary health and travel insurance is arranged prior to their departure to USA.

Note that the NZMS will offer this one prize only in the student oral presentation competition at each annual conference and this competition will occur annually at the sole discretion of the NZMS committee.

Note that the winner will be responsible for arranging their travel and will be reimbursed on the presentation of a receipt to the NZ Microbiological Society treasurer.

Publicity. The competition will be advertised on the NZMS web site and each NZMS conference web site. The closing date for online submissions will be provided on the NZMS website; no extensions of time are allowed.