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SIGCHI Development Fund (CfP)

The SIGCHI Development Fund (SDF) is a resource that provides support for the global SIGCHI community to invest in communication, innovation, and expansion around HCI. All SIGCHI members are eligible to apply for funding from the SDF. These proposals for funding must align with one or more of the SIGCHI EC’s Strategic Initiatives.

If you are a member of the SIGCHI community, and would like to invest in the development of your community of HCI researchers, practitioners, educators, students, and others, the SIGCHI Development Fund is for you. To draw on this fund for support, we ask that you submit proposals to engage your community in an event, activity, or project that you can argue will address a key need experienced by the community. This description of the purpose of the SDF is open-ended by design, so that you can give it some structure based on the contextual needs you have observed and are motivated to address.

What are SIGCHI’s strategic initiatives?

A key requirement is that proposals must align with SIGCHI’s strategic initiatives. These are as follows, and suggest the directions in which SIGCHI aims to grow in the near future:

  1. Grow our membership to reflect the community.
  2. Ensure scalability of our organization and conferences.
  3. Enhance HCI knowledge distribution.
  4. Promote inclusivity.
  5. Support local and global HCI.

There are numerous ways in which communities within the SIGCHI family might align with some or all of these initiatives (and you can read about these in detail here). They may aim for cultivating inclusivity at the local and/or global levels. They may be focused on HCI education goals, such as summer or winter schools. They may seek to grow the membership in ways that reflect the needs of the larger HCI community. An event that targeted initiatives 3, 4, and 5 was a 2019 summer school in New Delhi, India, on Expanding the Horizons of Human-Centered AI that you can read the report for here, for example. The CSCW 2019 Doctoral Consortium, led by Shaowen Bardzell and Bryan Semaan, also sought funding to support the participation of a small number of individuals who were both mentors and mentees at the event.

What questions must your proposal address?

  • Title: What is the project called?
  • People: Who will lead the project? Who else is on the team? What are the team’s qualifications for carrying out the proposed work?
  • Strategic Initiative: Which SIGCHI EC strategic initiatives does the project support and how?
  • Schedule: When will the proposed work begin and end? Detailed timelines are preferred, however long or short the project duration is.
  • Relevance: Which members of the SIGCHI community is this project relevant for?
  • Goals: What will the outcomes of this project be? What impact is it likely to have?
  • Budget & Budget Justification: What are the costs and revenues associated with the project? Which of these will be borne by SIGCHI? Which of these will be borne by other potential sources of funding? Note that we cannot support F&A or overheads.
  • Communicating Out: What is your plan for outreach and/or disseminating results across the SIGCHI membership and other relevant communities?

What has been funded previously?

Commonly funded are educational activities such as summer or winter schools (they can take place around the year, to be clear), or activities that involve the mentoring of individuals early in their career (such as doctoral consortia). We also aim to support activities that build research capacity in underresourced research contexts (including but not limited to various parts of the Global South). These activities may include paper-writing workshops for early career researchers with invited speakers (such as for targeting CHI 2021 publications). Proposals may also entail diversifying participation at SIGCHI-sponsored conferences by otherwise (demographically or disciplinarily) underrepresented groups. Funding from the SIGCHI Development Fund commonly covers reimbursement for travel of invited speakers or participating students, the cost of hosting an event, meals, subsidized registration costs, among other things.

When and where should you submit?

The link to apply is here. There are four deadlines through the year: January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15. Submissions close at 11.59PM AoE. (There may be slight adjustments to the deadline, so we recommend that you check the submissions site linked above to be sure.)

How is a proposal evaluated?

Each proposal submitted is reviewed by at least two SIGCHI EC members (as of now, though this process may undergo change). The EC will make a final call on the proposal and communicate this decision to you along with relevant feedback. This process can take at least a month; we recommend submitting your proposal at least three months before the funds are needed. Proposals that show strong alignment with the EC’s strategic initiatives, have a clearly laid out budget and timeline, and address a demonstrable need within the SIGCHI community will be prioritized for funding. Proposals that are declined may be resubmitted in future rounds once the committee’s feedback has been factored in.

What happens after a proposal is funded?

  • Policies: All financial claims must honor the SIGCHI Volunteer Reimbursement Policy as well as ACM policies.
  • Travel grants: Travel grants are managed through an online system which will be set up by the proposal contact person. This individual will enter a list of recipients, along with their emails and the amounts to be reimbursed. The system will dispatch emails to these recipients to request receipts for reimbursement.
  • Reimbursements: ACM accepts scanned copies of receipts, or originals via mail or courier if the person prefers. Receipts are required for all expenses $25 and over. ACM can process payment for checks or wire transfers. Please note that if you reside in the United States, only a check will be processed for the reimbursement. Payment can be received between 2–3 weeks depending on the form of payment.
  • Large purchases: Invoices for large purchases or contracts can be sent to the ACM for direct payment. The ACM also has a form for reimbursements of smaller costs incurred by the organizers.
  • Purchase of equipment: SIGCHI Development funding discourages the purchase of equipment. If equipment is absolutely required and cannot be otherwise procured, there must be a plan for returning equipment, as directed, to the control of the SIGCHI Executive Committee.
  • Labor costs: SIGCHI Development funding will not pay for the labor costs of ACM and/or SIGCHI members.
  • Changes to proposals: If there are any changes to the proposal, such as the list of budget items or the timeline, these must be approved before subsequent costs may be reimbursed.

Write to sigchi-devfund@acm.org if you have any questions or would like to consult a member of the EC before submitting your proposals.

NB: Some of the above procedures may undergo change in January 2019. Updates to this post will be made once these changes are decided upon.