Step-by-step guide to navigating eligibility, top travel grant programs, and application tips to present your research at international conferences with financial support.
If you are reading this article, it may be that you have got a paper accepted to a conference after dealing with several conference deadlines. Congratulations on this great achievement. I am sure it took a lot of hard work and patience. So, please take a deep breath and enjoy this moment.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
In this article, I will discuss:
(i) What are the criteria they look for in a conference travel grant application?
(ii) What are the different conference travel grant programs for an Indian Ph.D. student to attend an international computer science conference?
What expenses does a conference travel grant cover?
Student conference travel grants typically cover the travel cost (flight plus local travel), conference registration fees, accommodation (hotel or Airbnb), meals, and visa fees when attending top-tier computer science research conferences outside India.
What are the typical eligibility criteria for a successful travel grant application?
The applicant must be a student at any Indian university. Some grants have additional restrictions on the student applicant being the first author of the accepted paper.
Primary factors: Quality of conference (A* or A conference CORE rating), Oral or Poster (Oral is preferred), Long or Short (Long is preferred).
Some grants prioritize research scholars who apply for the first time. For example: ACM IARCS (https://www.iarcs.org.in/activities/grants.php)
However, it also depends on the availability of funds of the grant institution, so the best thing is to just apply. But these factors need to be kept in mind when you are selecting a publication venue for submitting your research work.
What are the different conference travel grant schemes available for an Indian Ph.D student?
Fortunately for the computer science researchers, we have travel grant programmes from both industry (Microsoft Research India, Google Research), government (SERB), and computing societies (ACM). Institutes like IITs (IIT Kharagpur) have their own travel fellowship schemes, prioritizing first-time authors and top-tier conferences.
Finally, if you are still unable to avail funding, some conferences offer travel grants where you have to submit a declaration from your supervisor regarding the non-availability of funds (a sample letter). You may need to attach rejection letters from other funding sources, too, if needed.
There is a detailed documentation already created by the Complex Networks Research Group, IIT Kharagpur. This also has specific details about IIT Kharagpur-specific processes, so very helpful for IIT-KGP students.
Still, I will cover the research grants that I have personally applied for and received funding for my research papers.
Microsoft Research India
Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/academic-outreach/ (This link seems to be outdated. Please email travelgrants@microsoft.com to get more information.
I have provided the “Paper Synopsis” (file) and “Fund Request Details” (file) that I uploaded.
The typical grant ranges between 1.5 to 2 lakh rupees.
Once you complete all the details and submit the form, you will get an (automated) confirmation mail from Microsoft Research Travel Grants regarding the receipt of the application.
You may expect a decision within 4 to 6 weeks, after which you may mail them to enquire about the status of your application. Mailing periodically after 2 to 3 weeks should be enough, after the initial four to six-week period.
Google Conference Scholarships (APAC)
Website: https://buildyourfuture.withgoogle.com/scholarships/google-conference-scholarships
Once you apply, you may expect a decision within 4 to 6 weeks. After that, you may periodically mail them in 2 to 3 weeks to enquire about the status of your application.
The typical grant ranges between 2500 to 3000 US Dollars.
ACM India-IARCS travel grants
Website: https://www.iarcs.org.in/activities/grants.php
Once you apply, you may expect a decision within 4 to 6 weeks (it may be even longer).
The travel grant is usually Rs. 60000 and may be a maximum of one lakh rupees.
SIGIR Student Travel Grants
Website: https://sigir.org/conferences/sponsored-conferences/
Please check the list of conferences. These travel grants are usually provided by the conference organizers and prioritize first-time grant recipients, among many other factors.
They typically cover the conference registration fees, but sometimes also cover travel expenses for international participants.
Insititute-wise Conference Travel Grants
Your institute may have its own conference travel grant scheme. Please check your institute’s website and talk with the Academic Section to know more about these schemes.
Anusandhan National Research Foundation International Travel Scheme (ITS) from Govt. of India
Website: https://anrfonline.in/ANRF/its?HomePage=New
Applications can be submitted within the window of 60–90 days in advance from the date of the start of the event.
Unlike the prior schemes, this requires more documentation, such as “Endorsement by the Head of the Institution,” so please start preparing early.
Miscellaneous Grant Schemes
- Apply to be a volunteer for the conference, where usually your conference registration fees will be waived.
- Ask your supervisor if a sponsored project could partially cover your travel. Typically, while applying for a project grant, a certain money is allocated under “travel expenses”.
- If you have international collaborators from academia or industry as co-authors in your accepted paper, please ask them if they can partially or fully cover the conference travel-related expenses. If it’s an A* conference, it is easier to convince them as they can easily justify your publication as a research output, so it’s a win-win situation.
- If you are funded by a fellowship such as the PMRF fellowship, there are already provisions for conference travel funding. So, it is a good idea to aim for fellowships at the start of your Ph.D. so that at a later stage, you have enough funding for conference travel.
Final Words
In this article, we covered where and how to apply for conference travel grants for computer science conferences, being a Ph.D student from India.
Although there can be many other schemes that I have not covered, the mentioned list is based on my personal experience and that of my lab members during my research journey at IIT Kharagpur from 2017 to 2025.
I will be happy to get your feedback and suggestions for other funding avenues that you have availed during your research journey in India as a student.
If you want me to cover some other topics, please do let me know in the comments or email me.
To learn more about my research portfolio, please visit https://roysoumya.github.io/
Thank you for taking the time to go through this article. I wish you all the very best in your research.
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