ACM SIGCOMM 2016, Florianópolis, Brazil
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ACM SIGCOMM 2016 Travel Grants

This year, as in years past, the Conference Organizing Committee is working hard to provide as much travel support to as many conference attendees as possible. Travel support has been provided from many different supporting organizations. Through this support, we will be able to assist dozens of attendees.

Support for SIGCOMM 2016 travel grants will be available to students, post-docs, and young faculty early in their career, no matter which university you are working at. We would like to encourage all of you to apply.

Important update: SIGCOMM's GeoDiversity Grant applicants should preferably be in their early career (applicants who are at most five years of full-time, full-level [non-postdoc] post-PhD employment will be given higher priority), and may be graduate students or post-docs (see updated selection criteria below).

Please consider the following important information before applying:

  • The application process is the same for all types of attendees and all sources of funding, and is described in the rest of this page.
  • Travel grant awards are meant to partially cover the cost of attending and participating in SIGCOMM 2016. The only travel expenses that can be reimbursed are: air travel, hotel, and conference registration.
  • Note that the award recipients will need to pay for the expenses ahead of time and get reimbursed after the conference.
  • The exact number of awards will depend on the availability of funds and will be determined as funding amounts are finalized.

Selection Criteria

The following criteria will be used in the selection process:

  1. Preference will be given to applicants that do not present a paper in the conference. The rationale for this criterion is that the participation costs for a presenting author should be covered by their home institution. Note that this preference applies to non-presenter authors, provided that they articulate a compelling case for why their home institution cannot cover the costs of their attendance in their application.
  2. Students presenting posters are encouraged to apply though. The rationale is to support the participation of students who do not present papers but contribute to the conference in other ways.
  3. Evidence of a serious interest in networking, as demonstrated by coursework and/or project experience, will be required. Advanced students close to graduation or in the job market will also be given priority, when possible.
  4. We also encourage participation of women and under-represented minorities. Special attention will be given to applicants from minority-serving institutions.
  5. After giving priority to the above criteria, (co-)authors of papers may be considered but will be given lower priority. The rationale is to support people that contribute to the conference and cannot attend otherwise due to budget or other constraints. (An example is a student who is a second author but does not present and would not be able to attend the conference otherwise. Another example is a postdoc who presents work with a past affiliation or without affiliation and thus is not supported either by his/her past or current institution. In both cases, the applicant and the letter-writer should explain in their letters why it is impossible to support the applicant from other sources.)
  6. (Updated) To increase the geographic diversity of the SIGCOMM attendee population, researchers early in their career (at most five years of full-time, full-level [non-postdoc] post-PhD employment) researchers preferably early in their career may be funded via SIGCOMM's GeoDiversity Grants (applicants who are at most five years of full-time, full-level [non-postdoc] post-PhD employment will be given higher priority). Because the intent of the grants is to increase participation from countries historically under-represented at the SIGCOMM conference (e.g. Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia), applicants should be from such countries.

Important Dates

  • June 8 June 13, 2016

    Application submission deadline (extended)

  • June 15 June 17, 2016

    Award notification (postponed)

Where and How to Apply

All application materials (applicant's info, CV, and letters) should be submitted electronically to the following website: https://sigcomm16travel.hotcrp.com/.

The applicant should create an account in the submission system and upload:

  1. An up-to-date CV
  2. An application letter, and
  3. A letter from their supervisor (Ph.D. adviser for students, Ph.D or postdoc adviser for postdocs, or supervisor for faculty/researchers). The recommendation letter can be directly uploaded by the applicant during the application process. Alternatively, the advisor can directly email the recommendation letter to Sue Moon (sbmoon@kaist.edu) if confidentiality is a concern.

The applicant's letter should be clearly divided in the following sections:

  1. An explicit identification of (a) the applicant's current country of study or work, (b) academic status (student, postdoc, or junior faculty member), and (c) whether the applicant qualifies for a GeoDiversity travel grant (see above);
  2. Whether the applicant is the author of a workshop paper or poster; and whether the applicant will participate in the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC)
  3. A brief summary of where the applicant is studying/working (provide a URL for a home page if one exists) and who the applicant's advisor/supervisor is; any additional information the applicant feels is relevant to support their case;
  4. A brief summary of research interests and plans for future research; and
  5. Why the conference attendance is important to the applicant's research
  6. A cost estimate of the trip, listing the cost of airfare, hotel, and the source of any price quote.

The supervisor's letter should be clearly divided in the following sections:

  1. The applicant's good standing in the institution;
  2. Explain why the applicant would benefit from attending SIGCOMM as well as how he/she could contribute to the conference; and
  3. Explain the current funding status and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant.

NetPL Workshop Travel Grant Complement

The NetPL 2016 workshop, co-located with ACM SIGCOMM 2016, has limited support for funding students to attend the workshop. Interested students can apply for a grant complement through the SIGCOMM travel grants application. To do so, select the NetPL option during the application, and motivate your reasons for attending and tell us how you may contribute to the workshop in a separate section of the application letter.

ACM SIGCOMM 2016, August 2016, Florianópolis, Brazil