Financial Aid

The Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences may offer financial support to enable doctoral students to attend conferences or special courses.
Please note: The GCB Website financial aid page and ILIAS GCB101 financial aid module are regularly audited and updated to ensure content is current and correct.

Prerequisites to qualifying:

  1. 1,200. CHF allowable per PhD curriculum

  2. Eligible for GCB financial aid are only students who are supervised by GCB mentors.

For those supervisors/mentors the following requirements must be fulfilled:

  • Participate in a GCB expert committee as an active member, mentoring PhD students.

  • Attend and participate in a minimum of one GCB application interview sessions annually.

Please submit documents with sufficient time for processing (min. 8-10 weeks) prior to the conference or course to info.gcb@unibe.ch, Administration GCB.

For questions about financial processing please contact info.gcb@unibe.ch, Administration GCB.

 

Type of Financial Aid

Prerequisites

  1. Presentation (talk or poster) as first and presenting author.
  2. Programm of the conference
  3. In principle, the first year of study and the 6.0 ECTS course work required for the PhD program must have been successfully completed.
  4. Applications for financial  aid for conference participation must be submitted to the GCB before the conference.
  5. Requests for support received after the event will not be considered.

Application for Financial Aid for Participation in Conferences 

Documents to be submitted to the GCB before the conference:

  1. The form Application for Financial Aid (PDF, 340KB)
  2. A copy of the abstract
  3. The confirmation letter of the conference organizers
  4. The current CTS/KSL study sheet

Refunding

  1. The contribution of the GCB will be limited to:
    max. CHF    600.‒ for conferences in Switzerland
    max. CHF    800.‒ for conferences in Europe and Mediterranean countries
    max. CHF 1'200.‒ for all overseas conferences
  2. For reimbursements by the GCB, the institutes of the Inselspital and the UPD send the following documents to the Finance Office of the University of Bern, within one month after the event:
    • Invoice from the applicant's institute, containing a list of all expenses, with foreign currencies converted to CHF, and addressed to:
      Universität Bern
      Zentraler Rechnungseingang
      Hochschulstrasse 6
      3012 Bern
      VERY IMPORTANT: The invoice must include the reference REF-200-40 (exact spelling required)
    • Copies of receipts, giving evidence of the effective costs
    • Copy of course certificate

    Complete documents can either be sent by regular mail to the invoice address above, or can be submitted electronically as one single PDF file to kreditoren@fin.unibe.ch.

  3. For reimbursements by the GCB, all other institutes of the University of Bern enter the invoice in eforms under Transfer Posting and Internal Billing / Ihr Institut kann die Rechnung in eforms unter Umbuchung und interne Verrechnung erfassen: https://eforms.unibe.ch/ within one month after the event. Credit reference is 200-40
    It is mandatory to also upload a list of all expenses, with foreign currencies converted to CHF, copies of receipts, giving evidence of the effective costs and a copy of course certificate
  4. Later submissions will not be considered for refunding.
  5. Contributions of the GCB will only be remitted to an official bank account of the University (i.e., applicant's institute), not to a private bank account.
  6. Covered are travel costs, registration costs and accommodation costs. Poster costs are not covered.

Prerequisites

  1. Participation in special courses must have been specifically agreed upon with the supervisor and the mentor at the start of the PhD, and must be listed on the Doctoral Agreement under Mandatory.
  2. Participation in special courses without allocation of ECTS must be followed by a presentation on the course contents in a formal setting at the applicant's institution after course attendance, preferentially in the presence of the mentor, and must be documented on a GCB Course Certificate (PDF, 160KB).
  3. A course certificate from the organizers must be presented to the GCB after the event.
  4. If no official course certificate is issued by the organizers, PhD candidates must use the GCB Course Certificate (PDF, 177KB) and have it signed by the course organizers.
  5. Applications for financial aid for participation in a special course must be submitted to the GCB before the start of the course.
  6. Requests for support received after the event will not be considered.
  7. The application has  to be approved by the PhD Committee of the GCB.

Application for Financial Aid  for Participation in Special Courses

Documents to be submitted to the GCB before the special course:

  1. The form Application for Financial Aid (PDF, 340KB)
  2. The official program or description of the special course
  3. The confirmation letter of the course organizers

Refunding

  1. The contribution of the GCB will be limited to:
    max. CHF  600.‒ for courses in Switzerland
    max. CHF  800.‒ for courses in Europe and Mediterranean countries
    max. CHF 1200.‒ for all overseas courses
  2. For reimbursements by the GCB, the institutes of the Inselspital and the UPD send the following documents to the Finance Office of the University of Bern, within one month after the event:
    • Invoice from the applicant's institute, containing a list of all expenses, with foreign currencies converted to CHF, and addressed to:
      Universität Bern
      Zentraler Rechnungseingang
      Hochschulstrasse 6
      3012 Bern
      VERY IMPORTANT: The invoice must include the reference REF-200-40 (exact spelling required)
    • Copies of receipts, giving evidence of the effective costs
    • Copy of course certificate

    Complete documents can either be sent by regular mail to the invoice address above, or can be submitted electronically as one single PDF file to kreditoren@fin.unibe.ch.

  3. For reimbursements by the GCB, all other institutes of the University of Bern enter the invoice in eforms under Transfer Posting and Internal Billing / Ihr Institut kann die Rechnung in eforms unter Umbuchung und interne Verrechnung erfassen: https://eforms.unibe.ch/ within one month after the event. Credit reference is 200-40
    It is mandatory to also upload a list of all expenses
    , with foreign currencies converted to CHF, copies of receipts, giving evidence of the effective costs and a copy of course certificate if applicaple
  4. Later submissions will not be considered for refunding.
  5. Contributions of the GCB will only be remitted to an official bank account of the University (i.e., applicant's institute), not to a private bank account.

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