Information about funding support for ALA conference in Vienna, July 2016

The Association for Language Awareness is offering eight stipends, each  of a maximum of £800 or equivalent, to enable participants to present a paper at the Vienna conference in July 2016.Members may apply for a stipend in one of three categories:

1. Long-term ALA members (in continuous membership for at least 5 years, i.e. since 2011) (2 stipends available).

2. Student members, including PhD students (students must still not have graduated until after the conference, and proof of current student status should be attached to the email application) (3 stipends).

3. Members resident in one of the countries designated by the European Educational Research Association as Low GDP countries and others as indicated by the extended list below (3 stipends). Residence will be determined by the mailing address currently recorded in the ALA membership list.

The Low GDP countries are:

• Africa – all countries;

• America – all countries except Canada and United States of America;

• Asia – all countries, except Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates;

• Australasia/Oceania – all countries, except Australia, New Zealand;

• Europe – Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine.

A number of members currently residing in the countries included in the Low GDP group indicated above have their membership fees paid for them by ALA. Difficulties in paying the required membership fee (£28, or £21 for a student for 2016) should not prevent an applicant for a stipend from submitting an application for membership without payment. If you reside in one of the countries included in the extended list above, are not already a member for 2016, and wish to benefit from this concession, please ensure that you complete the declaration at the foot of the stipend application form.

Applicants for stipends, currently residing in countries not included in the list of Low GDP countries  who are not yet members for 2016 should process their membership applications or renewals before 15 February  through the ALA website (www.languageawareness.org). It should be noted that an application for a stipend from someone who is neither an established member whose membership is in force for 2016, nor a newly applying member, will not be eligible for consideration.

Applications for stipends will be accepted after the Conference organisers have announced which abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the conference, but no later than 15 February 2016. Applicants, who must be registered members of ALA for 2016 at the time of their application, must have had their abstract accepted by the conference organisers, and may be the main author (or presenter) or any of the other authors (i.e., co-authors/co-presenters are welcome to apply). Under each category, the awards are made based on need, but where there appears to be equal need for two or more presenters, the conference abstracts may be evaluated to decide where the stipend will be allocated.

The funding is restricted. No individual will be awarded more than £800 or equivalent, and smaller sums may be awarded. The Stipends Committee reserves the right not to award within a category, and to consider awards of any monies left after stipends are awarded under these three categories to the next applicant down the list under any category, based on need. There is no guarantee that the scheme will be repeated in future years.

Those who were awarded funds for the ALA 2014 conference in Hamar are eligible to apply for funding in 2016, but if their application is for the same category, it will be held back until other applications in that category are considered.

Applicants for funding must complete a simple form

The decisions by the Stipends Committee will be based entirely on the information provided by applicants on their application form.Details of how to submit the application are provided on the form.