GeoDiversity Travel Grants

ACM SIGCOMM has a travel grant program to increase exchange across researchers in geographic diverse areas. In particular, the goal is to promote exchange between the Sigcomm community and networking researchers/students from countries historically under-represented at Sigcomm conferences (e.g. Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia). Geodiversity grants can take four forms.

1) Sponsor participation at Sigcomm-sponsored conferences

The grant sponsors selected attendees in their early career from countries with historically low participation in the Sigcomm conference. The grant covers travel, lodging, and registration.

Who Should Apply?

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. 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. In each year the precise amount of funding available and the pool of applicants will determine who can be funded.

The committee strongly prefers applicants who are not paper authors (the committee believes that authors' home organizations should cover costs for authors). Poster authors, however, are encouraged to apply. Other evaluation 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. ACM SIGCOMM encourages participation of women and under-represented minorities.

What is Covered?

Support is intended to fully cover travel (economy airfare), registration for the conference, lodging at the conference hotel (during the conference), meals, and local transportation. The specific costs will vary for each applicant, and are not expected to exceed $3500 for junior faculty, or $3000 for students. Reimbursement details will be announced to award recipients.

Who Decides?

Applicants are selected by the Conference's Travel Grant Committee.

How to Apply?

Please follow the instructions on the Conference’s Travel Grant Applications page.

2) Sponsor invitation of keynote speakers at conferences in under-represented areas.

The grant sponsors conferences/events organized in countries with historically low participation in the Sigcomm conference to invite keynote speakers.

Who Should Apply?

Organizers of events in countries historically under-represented at the Sigcomm conference (e.g. Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia) should apply to finance the trip of one keynote speaker. The keynote speaker should come from a different geographic area than the one where the event is held and should have sustained track record of research contributions that is typical of a senior member of the SIGCOMM community. The committee doesn’t expect to fund the same speaker to present at the same event in different years.

What is Covered?

Support is intended to fully cover travel (economy airfare), lodging at the conference hotel (during the conference), meals, and local transportation. We expect the event to cover registration cost for invited speakers. The specific costs will vary for each applicant, and are not expected to exceed $3500.

Who Decides?

Decisions are made by the SIGCOMM Executive Committee.

How to Apply?

Please send the following application material to geodiversity-grants@sigcomm.org.

1) A description of the event (one or two pages)

  • Organizers name, affiliation
  • Location and dates of the event
  • Target audience
  • Previous events (if any)
  • Short abstract with the goal of the event

2) CV of proposed speaker

3) Awards to authors of best papers at COMSNETS, AINTEC, and LANC

The grant sponsors  one author from the two best locally-authored papers of the regional conferences supported by SIGCOMM (i.e., COMSNETS, AINTEC, and LANC) to attend the SIGCOMM main conference (or other SIGCOMM-sponsored conference of their choice). The grant covers travel, lodging, and registration.

Who is Entitled?

ONE author from each of TWO of the best papers of each of the specified regional conferences with the following conditions:

  • At most one author per paper
  • The author should be in their early career: preferably graduate student or post-doc or a faculty member with at most five years of full-time, non-postdoctoral post-PhD employment. For COMSNETS, the author should have been a student at the time of paper submission, and the paper considered a 'student paper.'
  • The selected author must be affiliated with an institution in the specified geography

What is Covered?

Support is intended to fully cover travel (economy airfare), registration for the conference, lodging at the conference hotel (during the conference), meals, and local transportation. The specific costs will vary for each applicant, and are not expected to exceed $3500 for junior faculty, or $3000 for students. Reimbursement details will be announced to award recipients.

Who Decides?

Best paper decisions are made by each regional conference and communicated to the SIGCOMM Executive Committee by the General or PC chairs.

4) Sponsor student travel at national/regional networking summits.

SIGCOMM would like to promote networking research through support of national/regional networking summits. Such a summit would typically be a one- to three-day event that draws its participants from computer networking researchers and practitioners in a single country or region, with extensive participation by academic researchers and students. Organizers of such events are encouraged to apply for SIGCOMM funding, which will be in the form of travel grants to student participants. Normally, the grant amount will not exceed USD 7500 per event per year.

Who Should Apply?

Organizers of national/regional networking summits should apply to receive funding for student travel grants.

What is Covered?

Support is intended to cover student participation at the conference: travel (economy airfare), registration, lodging at the conference hotel (during the conference), meals, and local transportation. The conference is free to decide how to best allocate the resources among the candidate students. Normally, the grant amount will not exceed USD 7500 per event per year.

Who Decides?

Decisions are made by the SIGCOMM Executive Committee.

How to Apply?

Please send the following application material to geodiversity-grants@sigcomm.org.

1) A description of the event (one or two pages)

  • Organizers name, affiliation
  • Location and dates of the event
  • Target audience
  • Previous events (if any)
  • Short abstract with the goal of the event

2) Budget (how many students you plan to fund, breakdown of the cost per student)