Travel Awards

2025 ACNP Travel Award Program

for the

January 2026 Annual Meeting

Apply Now

Open: March 31, 2025

Deadline: May 8, 2025 at 5:00pm Central

2025 Travel Award Program Flyer (Full Version)

2025 Travel Award Program Flyer (Overview)

Award recipients will be notified via email by mid-July 2025.

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annually selects distinguished young scientists in the field of neuropsychopharmacology to be part of our travel award program. These travel awards offer an opportunity to attend an outstanding scientific program in clinical and basic research on brain-behavior-drug interactions, become aware of the most recent, and often unpublished, advances in psychopharmacology, and meet and interact with internationally distinguished researchers and scientists.

As part of our Travel Award Program, we recognize the ACNP Young Investigator Memorial Travel Awards, established in 1997 to commemorate the life and work of deceased College members who made contributions to the field of neuropsychopharmacology. These were awarded 1998-2005 in the names of; Louis S. Lasagna (1923-2003), Marian Weinbaum Fischman (1939-2001), Arnold J. Friedhoff (1923-2001), Leo Hollister (1920-2000), Seymour Kety (1915-2000), Heinz E. Lehmann (1911-1999), Jerry Sepinwall (1940-1998), Menek Goldstein (1926-1997), Daniel X. Freedman (1921-1993), and Gerald L. Kierman (1928-1992). ACNP continues to honor their contributions, made both during their lives and in memoriam through the support of young investigators, many of whom have gone on to become ACNP Members and make significant contributions to the field.

AWARD BENEFITS

• Waived Annual Meeting registration for award recipient and one accompanying spouse or significant other 
• Opportunity to present a poster abstract 
• Up to five nights lodging in Nassau, Bahamas. *Based on the annual meeting location, some years we are unable to accommodate the travel awardees at the main conference hotel or closer overflow hotel. 
• Roundtrip coach airfare for the awardee to attend the Annual Meeting. Accompanying other airfare is not provided by ACNP.   
• Up to $100 for ground transportation
• Up to $50 per day for meals for up to six days
• Onsite childcare stipend of $80 per day, per child for up to six days
• An ACNP member mentor for the annual meeting
• An automatic invitation to attend three (3) additional annual meetings with reduced registration fee, and the opportunity to present a poster abstract at each meeting.

APPLICATION PERIOD

The College will begin accepting applications March 31, 2025.

The deadline for application submission will be May 8, 2025 at 5:00pm Central Time. 

ELIGIBILITY

Any scientist worldwide is eligible to apply for a travel award. All candidates must be eligible in one of the two applicant levels AND meet the training/terminal training limits as described below. ACNP members (all categories of membership) and previous Travel Awardees are not eligible to apply.

Candidates from historically excluded groups in science and medicine are highly encouraged to apply. 

APPLICANT LEVELS

Junior Level

Junior Level applicants are defined as those individuals who are below Assistant Professor level (or equivalent level if in a non-academic institution) , i.e.: non-clinician Ph.D. students, medical residents or fellows, Pharm.D. residents, interns, and post-doctoral fellows. These applicants may be within, but no more than 5 years past their terminal training. Terminal training for clinicians (M.D.’s, D.O.’s, Psy.D.’s, D.V.M.’s, D.N.P.’s, Clinical Psychologists) will be counted from their final year of their residency or fellowship (clinical or postdoctoral), whichever is later. Terminal training for Pharm.D.’s will be counted from completion of Pharm.D. or residency, if completed. Terminal training for non-clinician Ph.D.’s will be counted from the last year of postdoctoral fellowship. Doctoral-level students (e.g., those in school to earn a Ph.D., M.D., D.O., Psy.D., etc.) are permitted to apply as Junior Level applicants; however, most awardees in this category are anticipated to have doctoral degrees.

The terminal training limit of 5 years can be extended by up to one (1) year for significant life events for Junior Level applicants. In this case, please provide background information in the application about the circumstances for the committee to consider (e.g., birth/adoption of a child, eldercare, illness or disability of applicant, care for an ill/disabled family member, military leave, personal or family tragedy, unforeseen obstacles to setting up a research lab, etc.).

Senior Level

Senior Level applicants are defined as those individuals who are at the Assistant Professor level or its equivalent, but have not received an R01 or other large, independent grant (e.g., U01) as PI or multi-PI. Clinicians (M.D., D.O., D.V.M., D.N.P., Psy.D., Pharm.D.) will have completed all research training (e.g. Ph.D., fellowship/post-doc, M.S., or foreign equivalent). Applicants may be no more than 7 years past their terminal training (postdoctoral fellowship or residency). Any person who is an Associate Professor or has already obtained an R01 or other large, independent grant (e.g., U01) as PI or multi-PI is considered too senior to apply for a travel award. Terminal training for clinicians (M.D.’s, D.O.’s, Psy.D.’s, D.V.M.’s, D.N.P.’s, clinical program Ph.D.’s) will be counted from the final year of their residency or fellowship (clinical or postdoctoral), whichever is later. Terminal training for Pharm.D.’s will be counted from completion of Pharm.D. or residency, if completed. Terminal training for non-clinician Ph.D.’s will be counted from the last year of postdoctoral fellowship.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Eligible applicants must complete a common online application and submit the following:

• Curriculum vitae (all applicants) – CV must include your publication record, a listing of your research funding, and teaching experience, if applicable. Include one line about your role in each peer-reviewed original data paper listed and how you contributed to data collection and analysis. CV must be in pdf format for upload.
• A supporting letter (all applicants) – Supporting letter must be written by an ACNP member, all categories of membership to include Fellow, Fellow Emeritus, Member, Member Emeritus, and Associate Member. Members will be allowed to nominate two (2) persons for a Travel Award.
  • • Members will have to enter the supporting letter into a text field in the submission system, which will be kept confidential from the travel award applicant.  The letter should include a concise and compelling description of why the candidate should receive the award. Focus on the candidate’s research accomplishment and how and why at this time in their development this award would advance their career. Indicate whether the candidate is in the: top 1%, top 5%, top 10%, top 25%, or top 50% of all active research junior colleagues (M.D., D.O., D.V.M., D.N.P., Psy.D., Ph.D., or Pharm.D.) the ACNP member has known. *Please note, this is a change from previous years where the supporting letter was uploaded as a pdf. If you need guidance on entering your supporting letter into the system, please call the ACNP Executive Office at (615) 324-2360. The Executive Office is open Monday – Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm Central.
    • A list of current ACNP members can be found here. 
    • Letters from non-ACNP members will not be accepted.
    • Nomination Instructions for ACNP Members
• A one-page focused career statement (all applicants) – Your career statement needs to describe your interest in an ACNP Travel Award, including your career goals and ambitions. Place an emphasis on your research goals, your most significant research accomplishments, and why you think this award would benefit you at this time in your career. Convey in a concise statement what you are working on and describe your own work in contrast to that of your mentor(s). Please address how your focus is relevant to the mission of the College. The applicants must enter the career statement into an entry field in the application, with a limit of 7,400 characters, which includes spaces. The system will not allow you to exceed this limit. If you utilize copy/paste, please double check that your full statement falls within the limit, as edits after the deadline will not be permitted.
• A summary of recent Early Career Development K or R Award, if applicable.
• Personal background or life experiences – A description of how your personal background or life experiences have impacted your training or career trajectory.

TRAVEL AWARD APPLICATION MENTORS

Travel Award Application Mentors are recent past Education and Training Committee members who have agreed to counsel prospective travel award applicants and/or their ACNP member nominator on travel award application for the Travel Award program. Travel Award Application Mentors may offer advice as to whether a prospective Travel Award applicant is likely to be competitive and if they are, aspects of their application that might enhance their likelihood for success. 

The members included on this list of Travel Award Application Mentors have agreed to be contacted by applicants and their ACNP Member nominator.

Travel Award applicants and/or their ACNP member nominator seeking advice from these individuals should know they are offering their best advice, but they do not speak for the Education and Training Committee. There is no guarantee following their advice will result in a Travel Award.

DEADLINE

The deadline for application submission will be May 8, 2025.

AWARD NOTIFICATION

Award recipients will be notified via email by mid July 2025.

QUESTIONS

For questions regarding the travel award program, contact ACNP at acnp@acnp.org in the Executive Office.

Congratulations to the 2024 ACNP Travel Awardees!

AWARD DESIGNATIONS

Each year, ACNP awards the following Travel Award designations to awardees of the Travel Award class. In order to be considered for these designations, please be sure to note your career interests and track in addiction and/or behavioral neuropsychopharmacology in your application.

ACNP/AMP BRAD Fellowship Program

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Americans for Medical Progress (AMP) are accepting applications for the ACNP/AMP BRAD Fellowship.  Named for Biomedical Research Awareness Day (BRAD), an annual science celebration, this fellowship seeks to raise awareness about the essential role of animal research in neuropsychopharmacology and other related fields.

The ACNP/AMP BRAD Fellowship is open to early career scientists in academia, industry, or other employment with a terminal graduate/professional degree (e.g., M.S., Ph.D., M.D.) and direct or indirect experience working with animals in research.  Applicants must support humane, essential animal research and have a passion for scientific communication and advocacy.  Only legal residents in the U.S. may apply.

The deadline to submit an application is June 1, 2025.

For full details about the Fellowship, please visit the AMP Website and see the ACNP/AMP BRAD flyer.

What is the ACNP/AMP BRAD Fellowship?  Learn from the previous BRAD Fellowship awardees themselves: