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The landscape of academic travel support for women in mathematics includes several established programs and some temporary pauses. The Association for Women in Mathematics has long managed the NSF-AWM Travel Grant Program, but the program is currently archived pending future funding and there are no competitions scheduled at this time. It is important to note that any travel occurring after June 30, 2026 is not currently eligible for support. This summary explains what the programs historically offered, what remains active elsewhere, and the eligibility windows that applicants should watch.
Beyond that archive, other initiatives continue to support early researchers. One such offering is the AMS-Simons Travel Grant scheme, which targets recent PhD recipients and provides modest recurring support for travel to foster collaboration. These complementary programs share a common goal: to increase research visibility for women and early-career mathematicians, and to build mentoring relationships that strengthen research programs. Below we unpack the AWM-managed legacy program and the AMS-Simons opportunity so applicants can understand purpose, scope, and key rules.
AWM travel programs: background and current status
The Association for Women in Mathematics has overseen the NSF-AWM Travel Grant Program since 1988, helping women in mathematics travel to conferences or visit colleagues for extended research stays. Historically the program included two strands: one to support attendance at meetings and another to permit concentrated mentoring visits. At present, however, the program is archived pending future funding, meaning no competitions are scheduled until further notice. Applicants should therefore treat the program as inactive for new applications while remaining alert for announcements should funding be restored.
Travel grants: purpose and benefits
The core idea of the travel grants was to help women mathematicians attend conferences at home or abroad, thereby enhancing research progress and increasing professional visibility. By backing participation in meetings, the grants aimed to grow the pool of women who could be invited as speakers at later events, addressing long-standing underrepresentation on conference programs. Each award could provide full or partial coverage of travel and subsistence costs for the meeting or conference most relevant to an applicant’s specialty, reinforcing both immediate research goals and longer-term career development.
Mentoring travel grants: structure and requirements
The Mentoring Travel Grants were designed to create working relationships between junior women and senior mathematicians. The objective was for the junior researcher to develop a sustained research program and to improve prospects for tenure. Each mentoring award funded travel, accommodations, and essential expenses for an untenured woman mathematician to spend one month at an institute or department working with a named mentor. A critical condition was that both the applicant’s and the mentor’s research fell within fields supported by the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation; here the program emphasized alignment with NSF-supported disciplinary areas.
AMS-Simons travel grants: targeted early-career support
The AMS-Simons Travel Grant program seeks to promote research interaction and collaboration among those who finished their doctorates recently. For the stated eligibility window, the program covers recent PhD recipients with graduation dates falling between April 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026, inclusive. For the 2026 application cycle specifically, awards are set at $2,500 per year for two years, designated for research-related travel. The program is explicitly intended to help early-career mathematicians gain in-person opportunities to build collaborations and present work when institutional travel funds may be limited.
Eligibility and application notes
Prospective applicants should check two important eligibility ranges cited by the program: one line describes the general target group as those earning degrees between April 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026, while the 2026 cycle calls out early-career researchers who completed the PhD within the prior four years—specifically between April 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026, inclusive—and who do not already have external research or travel funding. The application timeline highlights March 31 as a deadline point; applicants should consult the program announcements for the cycle they intend to enter and confirm precise submission details and required materials before applying.