Project summary

I am Gaurav Hadavale, final year undergraduate student at University Of Mumbai, India. I am seeking Travel and Conference Registration Fee Support of $1000 for presenting my sole-authored paper at the MICCAI Mechanistic Interpretability For Medical Foundation Models Workshop 2026, which is to be held in Strasbourg ,France [September 27 to October 1, 2026].

Paper: Reading Between the Lesions: Auditing Whether  Multimodal Dermatology Classifiers Actually Use Clinical Text
Code Available: [Github]

This grant removes a systemic financial barrier, allowing me to present my mechanistic auditing work on an international stage.

Without financial support, my paper may be withdrawn from publication. Earlier this year, I had to forgo presenting another sole-authored paper at the European Congress of Radiology (Vienna) solely due to travel costs. Your support would allow me to present my research on an international stage, and gain valuable networking opportunities. Any assistance would mean more than I can express.

This is time-sensitive. I must submit my Schengen Visa Application before Aug 24 and cannot proceed without confirming the funds.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

The primary goal of this project is to advance my research in AI safety and mechanistic interpretability. For the past year, I have been conducting independent research on mechanistic interpretability and trustworthy multimodal medical AI.

Presenting at MICCAI would be my first opportunity to engage in person with leading researchers in medical AI, engage with the AI safety and mechanistic interpretability community, receive feedback on my work, and build collaborations within the research community.
More about me: Linkedin

How will this funding be used?

• Round-trip airfare: US$778

• Budget dormitory accommodation (5 nights): US$100

• Conference registration fee: US$178

• Schengen visa application fee: US$156

Total estimated cost: US$1,212

Funding requested: US$1000
Personal contribution: US$ 212

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I am the sole-author of this paper.

This is my second sole-authored international paper acceptance. My first paper was accepted at European Congress of Radiology 2026, Vienna [DOI] but I was unfortunately unable to attend due to funding constraints. Additionally, I am currently doing a research internship remotely at A*STAR Singapore where I am focused on building Trustworthy evaluation frameworks for AI systems for safety outputs.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

I have raised US$0 in the last 12 months. I explored funding through my university, but it does not provide financial support for international conference travel, and I have not received any external funding.