Travel Grants

SIGIR Student Travel Grants

The SIGIR Student Travel Grant Program provides funding for students to help cover the cost of registration, travel, and lodging to the following SIGIR-sponsored conferences: SIGIR, CIKM, CHIIR, ICTIR, JCDL and WSDM.

To be eligible, a student must be a member of ACM SIGIR. Furthermore, to be eligible, a student must meet one of two criteria: (1) be an author of a full, short, or demo paper and be the one presenting the work at the conference or (2) be a doctoral consortium participant.

Student authors of a full, short, or demo paper who are not presenting the work at the conference are not eligible for these travel grants. Student authors of a workshop paper are also not eligible.

In the past, our goal was to provide small awards to as many students as possible. Starting with WSDM 2018, students will be awarded fixed amounts: $1,000 or $2,000 USD. Also, going forward, the application process will be competitive in the sense that not every applicant will receive a grant. Our reason for transitioning to a fixed-amount, competitive model is for the grants to be large enough so that awardees can actually use them to attend the conference.

The selection criteria will consider the student’s role in the research being presented at the conference, the student’s objectives for attending the conference, and the extent to which a grant is needed in order to attend the conference. Priority will also be given to students who have not received a travel grant in the past.

These grants are given in the form of reimbursements, so students will need to cover their costs upfront.

Students who receive a travel grant are expected to register using the “early-bird” conference registration rate and to keep travel and lodging costs as economical as possible.

Donald B. Crouch Travel Grants

As a result of a donation made by the Singhal Family Charitable Fund, additional funding is available for support of students living and studying in developing countries who are attending the SIGIR Conference. Selections for these grants will be made based on the university location information provided in the application.

Application Process, Deadlines, and Caveats

The application period for each conference (SIGIR, CIKM, CHIIR, ICTIR, JCDL and WSDM) will open directly following the acceptance notifications and will remain open for approximately two weeks. Applicants will be notified of the outcome approximately two weeks after the close of the application period.

Starting with WSDM 2018, the application process requires two steps:

  1. First, the student must submit an application. The application form will ask the student to submit a statement explaining his or her objectives for attending the conference.
  2. Second, the student’s academic advisor will be required to submit a statement of support explaining: (i) the student’s involvement in the research being presented at the conference, (ii) how the student will benefit from attending the conference, and (iii) to what extent a SIGIR Travel Grant is needed for the student to attend the conference.

Links to the appropriate forms are provided below. After a student submits their application, the academic advisor will receive an email reminder to submit the statement of support. Both forms need to be submitted for a student to receive consideration.

These forms will remain active only during the live application period for each specific conference. All application periods close at 11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth (AoE) on the close date.

Caveats:  Please be aware that the ACM is unable to process payments that violate sanctions imposed by U.S. law. Please see http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Pages/default.aspx for a list of sanctions.  All awards are subject to approval by the ACM.

Application Forms

Questions?

If you or your advisor have questions, contact Jaime Arguello, SIGIR Student Travel Grant Program Chair (jarguell [at] email.unc.edu).