EU Aquaponics Hub offers conference grants for junior researchers

The EU Aquaponics Hub have been allocated funding to support the participation of PhD students and Early Career Investigators (up to 8 years from the award of their PhD) from Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) at international science and technology related conferences not specifically organised by the COST Action. Attendance at European conferences is preferred. However, conferences held elsewhere can also be considered.

Eligibility
Eligible ITC countries for COST Action FA1305 are: Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Serbia and Turkey. The applicant must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow. The applicant must make an oral/poster presentation at the conference in question and must be listed in the official event/conference programme. The main subject of the oral presentation/poster presentation at the approved conference must be on the topic of the Action and must acknowledge both COST and the Action.

The grant
A Conference Grant is a fixed financial contribution which will 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. The calculation of the financial contribution for each Conference Grant must respect the following criteria:

Up to a maximum of EUR 2,500 in total can be afforded to each successful applicant
Up to a maximum of EUR 160 per day can be afforded for accommodation and meal expenses
Up to a maximum of EUR 500 can be claimed for the conference fees

In addition, when meal and accommodation expenses are supported by the hosting institution as part of the provisions offered in their conference package, the amount for subsistence afforded to each eligible participant must be deducted from the Grant. Documentary evidence of the conference fee amount must be provided by the applicant.

Application procedure
The application must be submitted at least 45 days before the conference start date. The conference must take place before 13 April 2018, which is the end date of COST Action FA1305. Applications can be submitted by logging into e-COST and clicking on the ITC Conference Grants tab. The tab ‘ITC Conference Grants’ will not be available in the following cases:

If the applicant’s e-COST profile is incomplete. In this case they will first have to fill in the missing information (affiliation, education details, CV)
If the primary affiliation of the applicant is not in an ITC country
If the Education details of the applicant do not demonstrate that they are a PhD student or an Early Career Investigator (post -doc)

Grant payment
The grant will be paid upon receipt of a satisfactory scientific report, which needs to include the presentation documents, or links to the document. The report must be submitted no later than 30 days from the end of the participation in the conference. The submission of the report is mandatory or the Grant will not be paid. Late submission, beyond the deadline, can also lead to the cancellation of the Grant.

For more information:
Sarah Milliken – s.milliken@gre.ac.uk
Benz Kotzen – b.kotzen@gre.ac.uk