GeoDiversity Travel Grants

ACM SIGCOMM has created a travel grant to increase the geographic diversity of its flagship "Sigcomm Data Communications Festival". The grant sponsors selected attendees in their early career (at most five years of full-time, full-level [non-postdoc] post-PhD employment) from under-represented countries based on need, distance to the conference venue, and impact of their attendance in increasing the diversity of conference participation. The grant covers travel, lodging, and registration to the main Sigcomm conference.

The committee strongly prefers applicants who are not paper authors (the committee believes that authors' home organizations should cover costs for authors). Poster authors, however, are encouraged to apply. Other criteria will include evidence of a serious interest in networking, as demonstrated by project experience. In most cases, no more than one applicant will be funded from each organization. ACM SIGCOMM encourages participation of women and under-represented minorities.

The program commenced with a $20,000 USD grant to sponsor attendees to Sigcomm 2006 in Pisa, Italy. Interested parties are encouraged to submit an application to the current travel grant chairs for Sigcomm.

What is Covered?

Support is intended to fully cover travel (economy airfare), registration for the conference, lodging at the conference hotel (four nights), meals, and local transportation. The specific costs will vary for each applicant, and are not expected to exceed $2500 USD. Reimbursement details will be announced to award recipients.

Who Decides?

Applicants are selected by the Sigcomm Travel Grant Committee.

Application Process

An application consists of:

• A. a 2-page application
• B. a supporting letter from the applicant's supervisor
• C. a supporting letter from a colleague
• NOTE: the applicant should submit only (A); (B) and (C) should be sent directly from the letter authors

Details follow.

A. Application

• Page 1:
• 1. Indicate their affiliation and any other personal information the applicant feels is relevant to support their case.
• 2. Indicate evidence that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria above.
• 3. Include a brief summary of research interests and accomplishments to date, and plans for future research.
• 4. Include their estimated expenses in U.S. dollars for attending the conference (total, and breakdown by conference registration, travel, lodging, and meals). When computing your estimated budget, please use $525 USD as the figure for early registration.
• Page 2:
• Provide a short 1-page vita, focusing on current research interests and recent and pending publications.

B. Supervisor's Letter

Letter from the applicant's current supervisor (e.g., post-doc supervisor, department chair), sent by the supervisor directly (NOT forwarded by the applicant), which:

• Confirms the applicant's standing at their institution (date started, current job title)
• Indicate current funding status, or explain why the applicant is in need of a travel grant.

C. Colleague's Letter

A separate letter of recommendation from a technical colleague, preferably from a different institution, sent by the colleague directly (NOT forwarded by the applicant), which:

• Describes the professional relationship between the applicant and colleague, e.g., discussing their collaboration
• Indicates why the applicant would benefit from attending the conference.
• Elaborate on the strengths and potential contributions of the applicant.

Submission

Send application and recommendation letters by e-mail to Travel Grant chairs in English only, formatted as follows:

• ASCII (preferable): 60 lines/page, 80 characters/line limit
• PDF: US letter or A4 pagesize 12 point, single-spaced, 1" margin