Limited funds are provided by the IAU to support travel to the meeting. See the IAU Rules for meetings for more information about this support. These grants are primarily aimed at PhD students and early-career researchers who otherwise would be unable to attend the meeting.
To apply for an IAU Travel Grant you need to do the following:
- indicate when submitting an abstract if you would like to be considered for travel support;
- add a short paragraph explaining why you need support and why it is important for you to participate in this symposium; and
- Download and complete the IAU Grant Application Form and send it to the organisers at info@massivestars2020.ie with the email subject “IAU Travel Grant Application Form” before the deadline of 24th January 2022.
- In addition, younger participants may wish to ask their academic supervisor to write a short email to info@massivestars2020.ie in support of your application.
The Scientific Organising Committee will allocate travel grants in conjunction with the IAU after the abstract submission deadline. The outcome of this allocation will be communicated to participants by the IAU directly. Individual grants will be paid by the LOC to recipients, upon their arrival and registration at the Meeting in May 2022.
From the IAU rules:
The IAU wishes to support qualified scientists to whom only limited means of support are available, e.g., colleagues from economically less privileged countries and young scientists. An IAU grant should be the seed money in ensuring the participation of a selected beneficiary, including participants with young children, rather than adding comfort for colleagues whose attendance is already assured.
The IAU grant money cannot be used for organisational purposes. Specifically, it cannot be used to support Invited Speakers by paying their travel, local expenses or by waiving their registration fee apart from exceptional situations that may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Neither can it be used to support the SOC or LOC members. Thus the organisers are expected to raise additional funds.
A proposal for the distribution of IAU grants to individual participants is expected to have a reasonable gender and geographical distribution. Normally no more than 1/5 of the IAU grant funds for a Meeting should be allocated to participants from a single country.
Within these general guidelines, it is left to the judgment of the SOC how to formulate its proposal for IAU grant distribution, maintaining the overall scientific standard of the conference as the primary criterion.
As a rule, the LOC will open a bank account in the name of the Meeting (or use a bank account of its institute or university provided there is no excessive overhead) to which the IAU Secretariat will transfer the allocated IAU grants fund.
Individual IAU grants will be paid by the LOC chairperson to recipients, upon their arrival and registration at the Meeting, against the signature of a receipt, and all these receipts should be sent to the IAU Secretariat, after the Meeting. All IAU funds must be accounted for, and any unspent funds must be returned to the IAU unless agreed otherwise in writing by the GS.
3.9.1. IAU Travel Grants for Symposia
Participants of IAU Symposia may apply for an IAU travel grant, using the IAU Grant Application Form available at each Symposium website. The deadline for the application is specified in the Symposium webpage.
A proposal for the distribution of IAU grants to individual participants following the guidelines referred above will be drafted by the SOC chairperson using the template for the Proposal for the distribution of IAU Grants (.xlsx format, 18 KB) and sent to the AGS, at least 3 months before the date of the Symposium, to ensure timely evaluation of the proposed list and possible revisions, notification to grant beneficiaries (individual notification letters will be e-mailed by the AGS to the grant’s recipients, with a copy to the SOC chair and the IAU Secretariat) and completion of visa formalities.
Official invitation letters, if required, shall be provided by the SOC or LOC chairs.
Any disagreement between the SOC and the AGS on the award of grants shall be referred to the IAU GS, whose decision shall be final.