OpenThinkers like Patricia Porto de Barros Ayaz (OpenThink 2025) have access to a travel and conference grant to support their ongoing public scholarship journey. This is beyond the $1,500 dollar scholarship OpenThinkers receive.
“This funding helps PhD to further hone their public scholarship and support their ongoing PhD research” states Kala Hirtle, senior manager of professional development and student engagement with the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS). “It gives OpenThinkers an opportunity to take what they are learning about public scholarship and apply it in a traditionally academic setting such as a conference.”
Applications for 2026 are now open.
We caught up with Patricia Porto de Barros Ayaz to learn about how she used OpenThink’s conference funding to support her journey as a PhD and OpenThinker. (Responses edited for length).
How has OpenThink supported the growth of your PhD journey?
The travel grant support was very important for me. This winter I was accepted into a migration winter school at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and they focused on qualitative research methods and it's a key part of my own research. TMU waived almost all the course fees. The travel grant from OpenThink helped me to pay for the ticket and other parts of the travel and allowed me to make it happen.
So have you encountered any kind of specific challenges or obstacles in terms of your research journey? Did OpenThink, either like the special sessions and training just the program itself, kind of help you overcome some of those?
My biggest challenge was shifting from comprehensive exams back to research mode.
I spent a long time on my comprehensive exams and I needed a refresh on research methods after it. The travel grant helped me to go to TMU for the qualitative methods research course and I felt up to date after this opportunity.
What would be some advice that you'd give to future OpenThinkers in terms of getting their research to a broader audience?
It's a very nice opportunity to share your research with people that are not within your research circles. So it's nice to practice to find out if you are using jargon or if your language is clear.
How to apply
Applications for OpenThink 2026 are now open. Apply by Feburary 2 at 4 p.m.