Student Travel Grants

We are pleased to announce that ACM SIGCOMM 2026 will offer a number of travel grants to support participation in the conference, which will be held in Denver, Colorado, August 17-21, 2026. These grants aim to broaden participation at SIGCOMM 2026 by helping to offset the costs of attending the conference for students, postdocs, and early-career researchers with limited resources.

The SIGCOMM 2026 Organizing Committee is committed to providing travel support to as many eligible applicants as possible. While we are actively working with various organizations to secure funding, resources remain extremely limited. Therefore, only a subset of well-justified applications will be awarded. Currently, we have three targeted opportunities:

• SIGCOMM GeoDiversity Travel Grant: These grants aim to support applicants—mainly early-career researchers and students—from countries that are historically under-represented at SIGCOMM (e.g., Latin America, Africa, parts of Asia). Priority will be given to applicants with at most five years of full-time and post-PhD employment.
• N2Women Travel Grant: These grants are awarded to women researchers and will be managed by the N2Women group. Please view their page for separate application instructions.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant: These grants aim to support US-based applicants only. Selection criteria will follow the US government guidelines. These grants are not available to postdocs, students funded or receiving funds under other federal grants, or students not attending a US College or University.

Important Information for Applicants

All types of travel grants follow the same application process. Awards are intended to only partially reimburse expenses to help support as many students as possible. We are targeting awards of approximately $800-$1,000. Examples of supported expenses include:

• Airfare (economy airfare, U.S. Flag Carrier)
• Hotel accommodations (Denver lodging rate is $110/night. Awardees will be expected to share rooms to reduce costs.)
• Conference registration
• Meals (Denver per-diem rate is $68/day, but will be reduced for meals included in registration. First and last day are paid at 75% of daily rate.)
• Local transportation (Reimbursement will be limited to lowest available public transport: Denver Airport train to Union Station is $10 and departs every 37 minutes. Most hotels near convention center are within a short walking distance from Union Station. There is also a free 16th street MallRide bus which will take you directly to the convention center from Union Station.)

Please note that awardees must initially pay for their travel expenses out-of-pocket. You will be reimbursed for authorized expenses after the conference. You must save your receipts for reimbursement! For many, reimbursement will arrive 7 to 9 weeks after the conference is over, if the documentation presented is correct and complete. The number and size of awards will depend on available funding, but students will be informed of such amount at the time of the award. They will then have a few days to accept or decline. Please keep in mind that the specific costs will vary for each applicant.

Prior to the event, awardees will be notified of

Selection Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the following:

• Preference will be given to applicants not presenting a paper, as presenting authors are typically funded by their institutions or grants.
• Preference will be given to first-time attendees.
• Students presenting posters or demos are highly encouraged to apply.
• A strong interest in the field of networking research must be demonstrated through coursework, projects, or publications.

How to Apply

All application materials must be submitted as a single PDF (max. size 600MB) via: https://sigcomm26travel.hotcrp.com

Submission title format:

First Last Names; Affiliation; Country

The application must include:

1. Applicant's Letter (max 2 pages). Following this structure:
   • Applicant's current country of study/work and academic status
   • Indication of eligibility for GeoDiversity, NSF and/or N2Women grant and to which you are applying.
   • Statement on whether applicant is presenting a paper/poster/demo, or participating in ACM SIGCOMM.
   • Overview of current institution, advisor/supervisor, academic backgeround.
   • Summary of research interests, efforts and future plans.
   • Motivation for attending SIGCOMM 2026
   • Estimated travel cost (airfare, hotel, registration) and basis for estimate.


2. Curriculum Vitae (max 4 pages)


3. Supervisor’s Letter of Recommendation. The letter should:
   • Confirm the applicant’s good standing
   • Explain the benefit of student attending SIGCOMM 2026 and expected contributions
   • Justify the financial need and describe any available institutional support sought

The recommendation letter can be included in the single PDF, or sent directly by the advisor to the Travel Grant Co-Chairs if confidentiality is needed.

Travel Grant Co-Chairs:

• Vincent Liu, liuv@seas.upenn.edu
• Karl Olson, karl.olson@westpoint.edu

Important Dates

Travel grants are made possible through the support of ACM SIGCOMM, The National Science Foundation, and N2Women. We strongly encourage eligible participants to apply and take part in this premier networking conference.

If you have any questions, please contact the travel grant co-chairs directly: