PEN-CAFoRR CA19128 ITC Conference Grants

WHAT ARE ITC CONFERENCE GRANTS?

ITC Conference Grants are aimed at supporting Early Career Investigator and PhD students from Participating ITC to attend related conferences, events or conduct activities on the topic of the Action that are not organised by the COST Action.

ITC Conference Grants Call is launched by PEN-CAFoRR ITC Conference Grants Manager (stating all relevant details of application (WG of reference) and deadline). Please note that current call is ongoing and the applications can be submitted at any time.

WHO CAN APPLY?

  • Conference Grants are exclusively reserved for PhD students, PhD candidates and ECI’s with a primary affiliation in an institution located in an Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC)participating in our COST Action PEN-CAFoRR (CA19128). A list of countries that have joined our action is available here.
  • The applicant must make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and must be listed in the official event/conference program. The main subject of the oral presentation / poster presentation / speech at the approved conference must be on the topic of the Action and must acknowledge both COST and PEN-CAFoRR Action (see the template here and Annotated Rules).
  • The participation of each applicant must be pre-approved by the Action Management Committee.
  • The conference must take place until 1 September 2022.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for a Conference Grant within the PEN-CAFoRR Cost Action (CA19128), please send the following documents (in a single pdf file) to Grant Awarding Coordinator gkaplan@eskisehir.edu.tr:

  • ITC Conference Grant application form (please use this template).
  • CV (including list of academic publications, if any).
  • Short description of your involvement in our COST Action.
    • A copy of the abstract or poster submitted to the conference.

Before filling the application, please consult the ITC Conference Grant rules in the Annotated Rules .

SELECTION PROCEDURE

After the deadline, a Committee of Reviewers (Core Group members and ITC Conference Grants Manager) pre-evaluates all submitted applications in the context of their compatibility and relevance with the topic of the Action. The committee also checks if the applicant is a PhD candidate or ECI, and if he/she represents an ITC country.

In addition to the formal eligibility criteria detailed above, all applications will be assessed against the following criteria of scientific merit:

  • Does the conference (or topic of the panel etc.) fall within the remit of COST Action PEN-CAFoRR?
  • Is the topic of the conference proposal within the remit of COST Action PEN-CAFoRR and will it likely make a significant contribution to the debates within the action?
  • Is the proposal internally coherent, logical, with a clearly discernible structure?
  • Is the presentation likely to make a significant contribution to the candidate’s scientific and professional development?
  • The priority is always given to applications that are related to currently ongoing Working Groups, submitted by the WG members, and endorsed by the WG leaders.
  • In order to ensure proper distribution of funds we never send more than one person to a single conference (especially if those people are from the same institution/country).

Your application will be first evaluated by the Core Group and the ITC Conference Grants Manager of the COST Action PEN-CAFoRR. Then, if the remaining budget allows to provide funding’s it will be submitted for approval by the Action Chair. Priority will be given to applications that support the objectives of the Working Groups. Please consult the PEN-CAFoRR website and the PEN-CAFoRR Memorandum of Understanding for details.

The result of the pre-approval is the ranking list and the actual number of applications to be funded is determined by the available budget. The ITC Conference Grants Manager confirms available funding with the Grant Holder Manager and informs successful Applicants about the result of the pre-approval.

The Applicants that were successful during the pre-approval must then formally submit their applications via e-COST.

Action Chair or Vice-Chair approves the applications that has been successfully pre-approved.

The Grant Holder sends the grant letter.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

A Conference Grant is a fixed financial contribution which takes into consideration the budget request of the applicant and the outcome of the evaluation of the application by the delegated person(s). Conference Grants do not necessarily cover all the expenses related to participating in a given conference. A Conference Grant is a contribution to the overall travel, accommodation, and meal expenses of the selected Grantee.

In addition, when meal and accommodation expenses are supported by the hosting institution as part of the provisions offered in their conference package, the amount for subsistence afforded to each eligible participant must be deducted from the Grant. Documentary evidence of the conference fee amount must be provided by the applicant and in kind, must be archived by the Grant Holder along with the relevant administrative documents.

The total budget for STSM in the current Grant Period is €1500,00 and the number of ITC grants that will be funded is three (3).

APPLICATION DEADLINE

open call

RECEIVING YOUR GRANT

If you have been selected as an ITC Conference Grant Recipient, you will receive your grant after the conference. After your conference (no more than 30 days), the eCOST System will automatically ask you to submit a Scientific Report to the Action Chair (or Vice-Chair if the Action Chair is affiliated to the Grant Holder Institution) and the Action’s Grant Holder. Payment of the Grant is subject to the submitted scientific report being approved by the Action Chair (or Vice-Chair if the Action Chair is affiliated to the Grant Holder Institution). Written approval of the submitted scientific report must be sent to the Grant Holder for archiving purposes.

In addition, we will ask you to prepare a short information about your participation for the next Management Committee meeting and to write a short entry for our website. Please remember to ask someone to take a picture of you during your presentation (e.g., the Applicant with the PEN-CAFoRR logo in background) so that we can showcase your involvement on our website and in our newsletter (with your prior consent, of course).

It is also expected that each ITC grantee will send a copy of their presentation/poster/paper including PEN-CAFoRR and COST logo to the ITC Conference Grants Manager and the Action Chair of the PEN-CAFoRR Action. It will be then disseminated using the official PEN-CAFoRR website, social media, etc. The material must be submitted to the ITC Conference Grants Manager and the Action Chair by email shortly after the conference.