Call for SIGIR 2018 Sponsored Travel Grant Applications
SIGIR 2018 – Ann Arbor Michigan, U.S.A., July 8-12, 2018
Submission deadline: 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time, May 30, 2018
Thanks to the generous support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and industry sponsors, SIGIR 2018 will offer sponsored travel grants to conference attendees. This Sponsored Travel Grant program is separate from the SIGIR Student Travel Grants program: applicants do not need to have student status nor an accepted paper at the conference to apply for a sponsored travel grant. In fact, students who are already receiving a SIGIR Student Travel Award this year are NOT eligible for this Sponsored Travel Grant program. Recipients of the Sponsored Travel Grant will be required to provide volunteer service during the conference as described below.
The purpose of the Sponsored Travel Grant is to broaden participation and to increase diversity of attendees in the exciting technical and other career enhancement programs at ACM SIGIR 2018. Allocation of the grants will be based on need and potential impact of the applicant’s attendance in increasing the diversity of conference participation, with particular focus on underrepresented groups and institutions and participants who would be unable or less likely to attend the conference otherwise.
We welcome applications from full-time students at degree-granting institutions, post-doctoral researchers, starting junior faculty, and employees of small businesses who need financial assistance with travel expenses and who are interested in the area of information retrieval and related research. The maximum amount of travel support provided to each grantee is based on the sponsors (e.g., NSF), and they are intended to cover the registration fee and partially cover travel costs including airfare and lodging. Recipients of this travel grant will be allowed to register at the early rate. The travel grants are available in the form of reimbursements that are sent only after the completion of the conference and receipt of all required documentation and receipts.
Decisions will be made based on merit and need. Other criteria will include evidence of SIGIR 2018 registration, although this is not required at the time of application. Importantly, SIGIR encourages participation of students who are not presenting papers at the conference, women and underrepresented minorities, undergraduate and masters students, as well as participation of students from under-represented institutions. If you believe this applies to you, please specify in your application. Again, we remind student applicants that students who are already receiving a SIGIR Student Travel Award are NOT eligible for this Sponsored Travel Grant.
How to submit an application:
Submission deadline: 11:59PM PDT, May 30, 2018
Apply at the Easychair site of SIGIR 2018 Sponsored Travel Grant:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sigir2018travelgrant.
Decisions will be made on a rolling basis until all slots are filled.
To complete the application:
- Please input the applicant’s information as Author 1 and the advisor of the applicant as Author 2 (department chair’s name for faculty applicants, and CEO’s name for small business employees).
- Please write down the applicant’s full name in the field “Title.”
- If you have a paper/demo accepted at SIGIR 2018 main conference or one of its workshops, please include the list of authors, title, and track/workshop of the paper(s) in the field “Abstract.”
- If you are the presenter of a tutorial at SIGIR 2018, please specify the title of the tutorial in the field “Abstract.”
- In the “Keywords” field, please specify if you belong to the group in need of greater representation for increased diversity at the conference (e.g. women, underrepresented minorities, or other underrepresented groups or institutions).
- Please upload a brief statement (as a single PDF file) that includes the following information:
- Your current status, including institution, type of program (e.g., undergraduate, PhD, MS, post-doc, or starting faculty), number of years in the current program, etc.
- Your research interest, current accomplishments, and future research plans.
- Description of how the grant will help you with your career plans.
- Title, authors, and track of the potentially accepted SIGIR 2018 presentation(s),
- Indicate whether you have also applied for other travel grants, including the SIGIR student travel award.
- Indicate whether you’d be willing to serve as a volunteer at the conference. Typically recipients of the Sponsored Travel Grant are required to attend an initial planning meeting at the start of the conference, and also serve for a total of 8 hours (e.g. in 1-2 hour blocks) assisting conference organizers with tasks such as staffing the registration desk, assembling conference packets, assisting session chairs with running technical sessions, etc.
- Any information that you feel is relevant to our decision.
- Estimated total budget for attending SIGIR 2018, and how the travel grant can help close the gap (as the award will only partially cover the cost).
If you are currently a student or a postdoc, please provide a recommendation letter from the applicant’s advisor supporting the application, that:
- Confirms that the applicant is a student in good standing at the time the application is submitted,
- Describes how the applicant will benefit from attending SIGIR 2018, and
- Explains why the applicant is in need of the travel award and whether there is funding available to cover the remaining expenses that is not covered by the sponsored travel grant,
- The letter should be appended in the same pdf document with the statement.
If you are currently a starting faculty member, please provide a recommendation letter from the applicant’s department chair supporting the application, that:
- Confirms that the applicant is a starting faculty member at the time the application is submitted,
- Describes how the applicant will benefit from attending SIGIR 2018, and
- Explains why the applicant is in need of the travel award and whether there is funding available to cover the remaining expenses that is not covered by the sponsored travel grant,
- The letter should be appended in the same pdf document with the statement.
If you are currently an employee of a small business (with 10 employees or fewer), please provide a recommendation letter from the CEO or equivalent executive supporting the application, that:
- Confirms that the business has 10 employees or fewer and the applicant is an employee of the business at the time the application is submitted,
- Describes how the applicant will benefit from attending SIGIR 2018, and
- Explains why the applicant is in need of the travel award and whether there is funding available to cover the remaining expenses that is not covered by the sponsored travel grant.
- The letter should be appended in the same pdf document with the statement
Recipients of the travel awards are required to:
- Register for and attend the conference.
- Serve as a volunteer and assist the conference organizers in various activities during the conference, for up to 8 hours.
- Submit the original invoice up to the amount of the travel grant for reimbursement after the conference. (Instructions will be sent later.)
Only PDF documents are accepted. Late submissions, or documents in other formats will not be accepted. All questions should be addressed to sigir2018travelgrants@easychair.org.
Hongning Wang (Student Sponsorship Chair)