EGU2015: Applying for financial support to attend the General Assembly

The EGU is committed to promoting the participation of both young scientists and established researchers from low and middle income countries who wish to present their work at the EGU General Assembly. In order to encourage participation of scientists from both these groups, a limited amount of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly is reserved to provide financial support to those who wish to attend the meeting.

From 2005 to 2013, the total amount awarded grew from about €50k to €90k, with a record 279 awards being allocated to support attendance to the 2014 General Assembly. For the 2015 General Assembly, the EGU has allocated €110k to financially support scientists who wish to attend the meeting. About 80-90% of the funds are reserved to assist young scientists in attending the conference, whilst the remaining funds will be allocated to established scientists.

Financial support includes a waiver of the registration fee and a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (relating to the abstract for which support was requested). Additionally, the grant may include support for travel expenditures, at the discretion of the Support Selection Committee, to a maximum of €300. The EGU currently runs two different financial support schemes; you will be able to find more details about each of these awards on the Support & Distinction section on the EGU 2015 website. You will also find details on who is eligible for the awards on the website.

Scientists who wish to apply for financial support should submit an abstract, on which they are first authors, by 28 November 2014. Late applications, or applications where the scientist is not the main author, will not be considered. The EGU Support Selection Committee will make its decision to support individual contributions by 31 December 2014. All applicants will be informed after the decision via email early in the new year. Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author, in person, during the EGU General Assembly 2015.

To submit the abstract of your oral or poster presentation, please enter the Call-For-Papers page on the EGU2015 website, select the part of the programme you would like to submit an abstract to, and study the respective session list. Each session shows the link to Abstract Submission that you should use. More information on how to submit an abstract is available from the EGU 2015 website.

Applying for financial support is easier than ever! As soon as you make your choice of session you will be prompted to select whether you wish to apply for financial support. If you do, be sure you tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract. Bear in mind that, even if you are applying for support, you will still need to pay the Abstract Processing Charge. A screenshot of the first screen of the abstract submission process is shown below.

The abstract submission page (click for larger). If you wish to apply for financial support, please select the relevant support box.

There is a new and improved selection process for the allocation of the awards. Abstracts are evaluated on the basis of the criteria outlined below:

Evaluation Process

1. Based on the provided information eligible abstracts will be forwarded for evaluation.
2. The first and most important step, after the submission deadline, corresponds to the evaluation of the abstract made by the respective session convener or by the programme group chair when the convener states a conflict of interest, based on the criteria outlined above. (A conflict of interest arises when the convener is, for example, a co-author on the abstract or a supervisor, close collaborator or direct colleague of the applicant.)
3. The second step corresponds to the ranking made by the EGU programme groups which is based, on a first instance, on the convener’s evaluation of the abstracts.
4. In the third and final step, the Support Selection Committee  (‘Treasurer team’) grants travel support within the overall annual budget allocation, taking into account the evaluations of conveners and ranking of programme group chairs, the number of abstracts submitted to each session, and the number of registered participants by country (estimated based on previous-year numbers). Between 30-35% of the travel grants will go to young scientists of low income countries in Europe, while 10-20% will be awarded to established scientists from low, lower middle, and upper middle income countries (see Support & Distinction page for more details on the countries).

Next year’s financial-support awardees will be notified in early January 2015. If you have any questions about applying for financial support, please contact EGU communications Officer, Laura Roberts.

Schematic summary of the evaluation criteria.