SIGCOMM 2008 - Travel Grants

ACM SIGCOMM 2008 Travel Grants

Thanks to the supporting organizations, SIGCOMM2008 has three travel grants programs: GeoDiversity Travel Grants for faculties and researchers, US Minority Faculty Travel Grants and Student Travel Grants. The application processes are the same for the three travel grants.

ACM SIGCOMM GeoDiversity Travel Grants are for people holding faculty and researcher positions in their early career (at most five years of full-time, full-level [non-postdoc] post-PhD employment) from under-represented countries. Roughly 5-10 awardees will be selected.
This program is in its third year of funding from the SIG itself.

US Minority Faculty Travel Grants are funded by NSF for US-based faculty in minority serving institutions. Roughly 2 awardees will be selected.

Student Travel Grants are for students only. Roughly 35-40 awardees will be selected.
This program has three sources of funding. The Euro-NF funding is earmarked for students studying in Euro-NF partner institutions. The NSF funding is for students studying in the US, and the Cisco funding is unconstrained.

The committee strongly prefers applicants who are not paper authors (the committee believes that authors' home organizations should cover costs for authors). Here, 'author' means any named author on a conference or workshop paper. In contrast, poster authors will be given priority.

SIGCOMM 2008 gratefully acknowledges Cisco, NSF, and Euro-NF for financial support of these travel grants.

Important dates

Submission deadline for all programs	May 30, 2008 (1700 EDT)
Acceptance notification	June 17, 2008

Submissions and all other communication should be sent to sigcomm2008travel AT acm DOT org.

SIGCOMM GeoDiversity Travel Grants and US Minority Faculty Travel Grants

ACM SIGCOMM has created a travel grant program to increase the geographic diversity of its flagship "SIGCOMM Data Communications Festival". This program selects 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.

This is the second year that the NSF is supporting travel grants for US-based faculty from under-represented-minority-serving institutions. In addition to this criterion, selection will also be based on need and impact of their attendance in both increasing the diversity of the conference participation and potential impact on their own work and their institutions.

For both programs, the committee strongly prefers applicants who are not paper authors (the committee believes that authors' home organizations should cover costs for authors, although exceptions can be made). 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. Both ACM SIGCOMM and the NSF encourage participation of women and under-represented minorities.

Who Decides?

Applicants are selected by the SIGCOMM Travel Grant Committee.

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.
It is possible that receipts will be required for reimbursement.

How to apply for GeoDiversity and Minority Faculty Travel Grants?

An application consists of:

a 2-page application
a supporting letter from the applicant's supervisor
a supporting letter from a colleague

NOTE: the applicant should submit only (1); (2) and (3) should be sent directly from the letter authors.

Details follow.

1. Application

Page 1:

Indicate their affiliation and any other personal information the applicant feels is relevant to support their case.
Indicate evidence that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria above.
Include a brief summary of research interests and accomplishments to date, and plans for future research.
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 for ACM members or $625 USD for non-ACM members as the figure for early registration, and $207 lodging per night, for up to 4 nights.

Page 2:

Provide a short 1-page vita, focusing on current research interests and recent and pending publications.

2. 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.

3. 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.
Elaborates on the strengths and potential contributions of the applicant.

Send application and recommendation letters by e-mail to: sigcomm2008travel AT acm DOT org in ASCII (highly preferable), or PDF format ONLY. All email should identify the applicant.

SIGCOMM 2008 Student Travel Grants

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

Applications are accepted from students at degree-granting institutions throughout the world. The committee strongly prefers to give grants to students who are not paper authors. (The committee believes that for authors, costs should be covered by the advisor or university.)

Poster authors, however, are encouraged to apply. Other criteria will include evidence of a serious interest in networking, as demonstrated by coursework and project experience.
Normally, no more than one student will be funded from each school. ACM SIGCOMM encourages participation of women and under-represented minorities.

Who Decides?

Applicants are selected by the SIGCOMM Travel Grant Committee.

What is Covered?

The maximum amount of support provided to each recepient is set by the committee based on its own judgement, and it is intended to partially cover the applicant's travel (economy airfare) and registration. Lodging and meal expenses may or may not be partially covered depending on the total availability of funds.

The grants will be handled via reimbursement by check in US Dollars, except for the EU supported grants which will be in Euros. For any expense that is covered, a receipt is required. An expense report form and other required forms will have to be turned in after the conference. The reimbursement will be sent as check via mail six to eight weeks after the documents are received. The details will be announced to the award recipients.

How to apply for Student Travel Grants?

An application for a travel grant will consist of a letter (maximum of 2 pages, ASCII or PDF only) from the applicant, and a recommendation letter (maximum of 1 page, again ascii or pdf only) from the student's advisor for the student travel grants, sent directly by the advisor. All email should identify the applicant.

The letter from the applicant should:

Indicate their affiliation and any other personal information the student feels is relevant to support their case.
Indicate whether the applicant is eligible for either the US- or Euro-NF partner-based program or other.
Include a brief summary of research interests and accomplishments to date, and plans for future research.
Include a short (1/2 page max, format described below) vita, containing relevant coursework and grades for students.
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 $350 as the figure for student early registration and $103.50 per night for lodging, up to 4 nights, in a shared room.

In addition, the student's advisor should send a letter of recommendation (maximum of 1 page, format described below) to the committee.

This letter should:

Confirm that the student is a Ph.D. candidate in good standing (one sentence);
Indicate why the student would benefit from attending the conference;
Elaborate on the strengths and potential contributions of the student;
Indicate current funding status, or explain briefly why the student is in need of a travel grant.

Send application and recommendation letters by e-mail to: sigcomm2008travel AT acm DOT org in ASCII (highly preferable), or PDF format ONLY.

SIGCOMM 2008 Travel Grant Committee

Chair	Karen Sollins	MIT
	Geoff Voelker	UC San Diego
	Klaus Wehrle	RWTH Aachen
	Xiaowei Yang	UC Irvine