There's a conference in NZ that I really want to go to, my supervisors and a few other colleagues are going, and they haven't mentioned it to me yet. It is an annual conference that is in a different place each year. This year it was in London in March and I went down myself to present a paper. My supervisors really encouraged me to go to the one in London and present a paper, even though they weren't going and I found it to be great experience. I would love to go to the one in NZ too but nobody has mentioned it to me this year and I don't know if it's because they don't want me to go to a conference so far away, it will cost quite a lot, or they think that I'm too busy with my research to think about going, or if they think it just won't be useful for me. I'm too shy to ask because I still don't know my supervisors and colleagues that well and I don't want them to think that I just want a free holiday! The deadline for submissions is the end of this month, so I take it they don't want me to apply because they haven't suggested it? Or do you think I should take it upon myself to apply? I'm quite new at this so don't really know what's best, or what the etiquette is!

Hi there,

I think if you have something relevent that you could present and especially as you have presented at this conference before so are clearly up to the standard required and in the right area then you are well within your rights to speak to your supervisor about the possibility of you presenting something. I think it would only look like you were trying to blag a free holiday if you scraped together some not so good data or tried to re-hash your old data to make a presentation so you could go! Your supervisor should at least listen to what you have to suggest and there's no harm in asking and appearing enthusiastic. Good Luck.

I don't know what stage you're at, but your supervisor might think its too distracting for your research, the group doesn't have the money to send everyone (though if you're Research Council funded then there is a small amount of conference money, though its only £150 a year - certainly not enough for New Zealand!), or its just slipped his mind. No harm in asking...

I had the same thing regarding an international conference in Australia. I saw it and when I mentioned it to my supervisor I was expecting him to say no but he was all for me going to it. So I ended up going and presenting some of my data.

Best thing to do would be to bring it up with your supervisor and see what s/he says, tell them that you want to submit a paper/poster and why you think the conference would be good for you.

I got extra funding for travel etc by applying to a couple of societies I am a member of, most groups have travel grants and student bursaries to help towards conference attendance.