Call for Conference Grants in GP5

NEP4DISSENT (COST Action 16213) announces the Call for Conference Grants to support presentation of work by Action participants at high level conferences in order to:

Serve COST Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy, in particular by supporting Young Researchers and Innovators affiliated in a legal entity in an Inclusiveness Target Countries/ Near Neighbour Countries to establish a strong network and increase their visibility
in the research community through sharing their work and to gain knowledge;
Increase the visibility of the Action

Conditions set in this call follow the COST Association guidelines described in ANNEX 2 of the Annotated Rules for Cost Actions (ARCA). In case of discrepancies, the ARCA shall be decisive.

ELIGIBILITY

There are two modalities of Conference Grants:

ITC Conference Grant – reserved for Young Researchers and Innovators (under 40 years old) from Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) / Near Neighbour Country (NNC) that have signed our Memorandum of Understanding
Dissemination Conference Grant – not limited by age or country of affiliation, but dedicated specifically to represent the Action, its activities and achievements, at high level conferences involving key stakeholders

ITCs participating in NEP4DISSENT are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Island, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Republic of Serbia.

NNC participating in NEP4DISSENT are: Georgia, Russian Federation and Ukraine.

To apply, your oral/poster presentation must be accepted to the conference (you must be listed in the program or present acceptance letter).

DEADLINES AND HOW TO APPLY

The deadline for submitting applications is Thursday, 3 February 2022.

The conference travel must be completed before 1 April 2022, in order to allow orderly reporting. Special cases will be considered.

To file the conference grant application please go to: https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants. Click on “Apply for grant” and select either “ITC Conference Grant” or “Dissemination Grant”

You will need to provide following information:

Title of your presentation
Conference details (name. date, country)
Attendance type
Budget request*

* The in calculating the budget request please take into consideration COST daily allowance rates, as well as considerably economic means of travel to your host institution.

Also you will need to upload:

Application form (template available on e-COST) explaining relevance of the conference for the Action
Copy of the abstract of the presentation
Proof of acceptance (acceptance letter or program featuring your presentation)

EVALUATION

Applications will be evaluated by the Action’s Core Group acting as the ITC Conference Grants Award Committee. The Committee will take into account the scientific merit of each application in correspondence with the Action’s scientific objectives, as well as the formal criteria explained below. The Committee will take effort to maintain parity between applicants from different NEP4DISSENT Working Groups. The committee reserves the right to modify the financial condition of the conference grant request. The grants are conditioned upon availability of funds.

CONDITIONS OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT

A Conference Grant is a fixed financial contribution which takes into consideration the budget request of the applicant and the outcome of the evaluation of the application by the Award Committee. Conference Grants do not necessarily cover all of the expenses related to participating in a given conference. A Conference Grant is a contribution to the overall travel, accommodation and meal expenses of the selected Grantee, and will be paid after the conference on the basis of the submitted report, which has to be approved by the Award Committee (see: Reporting and approval for payment below). In particular the Award Committee take into consideration COST daily allowance rates, as well as considerably economic means of travel to your destination.

Up to 2000 EUR can be awarded for face-to-face conferences.

Up to 500 EUR can be awarded for virtual conferences.

REPORTING AND APPROVAL FOR PAYMENT

The grantee submits the required reports in 30 calendar days from the completion of the conference travel, or in 15 days after the end of Grant Period (15 April 2022), whichever date comes first.

The required report/documentation for claiming a conference grant is:

Report on the outcome of the presentation (visibility, contacts made. etc.)
certificate of attendance
the program/book of abstracts/proceedings listing the presentation
copy of the presentation/poster

Grant payment will be processed once the report is accepted.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

Please consider following guidelines, and in particular:

postpone making the travel arrangements for as late as possible
choose flights and accommodation that are cancellable (calculate that option in your budget)
buy travel cancellation insurance (it is eligible)
check the restrictions 48 hours before the event.
Provisions related to Force majeure impacting travel are described in detail in section 1.3.1.6 of Annex 1 of the ARCA.

All queries regarding STSM grants should be directed to info@nep4dissent.eu.

Procedural and financial questions should be directed to NEP4DISSENT Grant Manager Gabriela Semenowicz (gabriela.semenowicz@ibl.waw.pl).