Call for Travel Grant Applicants

We are proud to announce that IMC 2023 will support conference attendance by students with travel grants.

Important Dates

Please note that late applications will not be considered.

Student Travel Grants

The purpose of this program is to encourage graduate student participation at the conference by funding the travel cost for students who would otherwise be unable to attend.

Eligibility: Applicants to this grant must be a student at the time of physically attending IMC 2023 to qualify.

Selection criteria: The student statement/letter and advisor letter(s) weigh strongly in selecting students for an IMC travel grant. Generally, travel grants are awarded to PhD students pursuing research in areas of interest to IMC. We rarely consider master students and do not consider postdocs.

Prioritization order:

1. Students from under-represented groups or institutions. Additionally, grants are spread across institutions, and the historical tendency is to not award more than one travel grant per institution.
2. Students who are authors of rejected IMC papers.
3. Students who have not received a prior IMC travel grant.
4. Students who are authors of accepted IMC posters.
5. Students in early stages of their Ph.D. studies without alternate means of support
6. Students who are co-authors of accepted papers and will not be speaking at the conference.

The factors above represent our rough prioritization. We also take into account extenuating circumstances that are discussed in statements and letters. In addition to this, we prioritize equal representation and diversity.

Funding level: The expectation is that a student travel grant will significantly offset air fare, shared hotel accommodation, and registration. It may not fully cover these expenses, however, since our desire is to maximize participation by students. Thus, we strongly encourage students to seek alternative top-up funding. Note, we are working with ACM towards waiving the registration fees for travel grant recipients. While that is in progress, we ask that applicants include the registration fee from 2022 as an approximate cost in their planning.

Note for presenting student authors: We generally expect presenting authors to be sponsored by their institution, and will generally not consider student authors for travel grants. If, however, you would struggle to attend IMC without a travel grant because your institution cannot sponsor your travel, please have your advisor provide details in their letter.

How to Apply

Your application must include the following and must be based on the following template:

• A resume with complete contact information and correct email address.

• A short personal statement (no more than 250 words) that includes the following:

  1. information that the applicant feels is relevant to support their case, e.g., why the conference attendance is important to the applicant’s research and career development.
  2. estimated expenses for attending the conference (total, and breakdown by conference registration, travel, and lodging).
  3. If you will be unable to attend IMC without a travel grant, please explain why this is the case.

• A letter (max. 1 page) from your advisor (or a faculty contact if you do not have an advisor), which should:

  1. Confirm the applicant’s good standing in the institution;
  2. Explain why the applicant would benefit from attending IMC as well as how they could contribute to the conference; and
  3. Explain the current funding status and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant as well as commit to supplement the travel award (to cover remaining costs) to enable attendance.

• Submit your application using the template including your CV and Reference Letter as a single PDF file at https://imc2023-travel-grants.hotcrp.com.

Additional Information

Please pay attention to the following details about the travel grant application and reimbursement process:

• Tell us if you are a student at a US institution (so we can determine which travel grants budget to use).

• There is no strict upper or lower bound for the travel grants, however, travel grants will typically be capped at $1500 USD.

• Please provide complete contact information. We will need to have your current mailing address. Please take into account any address changes you may have near the time of the stipend deadline, for example due to school breaks. You will be notified via email, so make sure your email address is correct on your application.

• In order to obtain reimbursement, you must provide IMC with your original receipts for airfare and hotel expenses.

• We do expect you to prefer affordable accommodation over more expensive options.

• Note to those awarded a travel grant: The reimbursement process can take in the order of several months so please be patient!

• The decision on student travel grants is made by the IMC Student Travel Grant Committee; all decisions are final.

• Grant applicants should ensure that they have the proper travel documents (i.e., a visa) to travel to and enter Canada, and to return to their home institution after the conference.

Contacts

Please contact the travel grant chairs for any question or comment:

Gautam Akiwate (Stanford University)

Alberto Dainotti (Georgia Tech).