The EGU is committed to promoting the participation of both early career 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 part of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly is reserved to provide financial support to those who wish to attend the meeting.
EGU’s Roland Schlich travel support scheme is named in honour of Roland Schlich, a geoscientist who was instrumental in the formation of EGU. Roland was one of the founders of the Union, as well as served as executive secretary (2002–2004) and treasurer (2005–2015).
From 2005 to 2019, the total amount of financial support awarded through the scheme grew from about €50,000 to €120,000, with 310 awards being allocated in 2019 to support attendance to the 2019 General Assembly, representing a 32% application success rate. For the 2020 General Assembly, the EGU has allocated €130,000 for financial support. About 80-90% of the funds are reserved to assist early career scientists in attending the conference. 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.
Eligibility
The EGU currently runs two different Roland Schlich travel support schemes: Early Career Scientist’s Travel Support (ECSTS) and Established Scientist’s Travel Support (ESTS); you will be able to find more details about each of these awards on the About & Support section on the EGU 2020 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 the contact author, as well as the first and presenting author, by 1 December 2019. 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 20 December 2019. All applicants will be informed after the decision via email in late December or January. Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author.
Please note that, as of 2017, a participant can receive a maximum of two ECSTS and two ESTS during their career. In other words, applicants who have received two travel supports in a category in the past are not eligible to apply for that category again.
How to apply
The abstract submission page (click for larger). If you wish to apply for financial support, please select the relevant support box.
You start your application for the travel support scheme, by first submitting the abstract of your oral, poster or PICO presentation. To do so, please enter the call-for-abstracts page on the EGU 2020 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 2020 website.
Applying for financial support is then 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 abstract submission process is shown above.
Evaluation Criteria
As of 2015 there is an improved selection process for the allocation of the awards. Abstracts are evaluated on the basis of the criteria outlined below.
If you have any questions about applying for financial support for the 2020 General Assembly, please contact Didier Roche (programme committee officer for travel support) or Olivia Trani (EGU Communications Officer).
