The purpose of the program is to encourage the Euro-NGI Network of Excellence graduate students to participate at the IFIP Networking 2006 conference by partially or fully funding the travel costs of students who would otherwise be unable to attend.

Applications are accepted from students belonging to the institutions from the Euro-NGI Network of Excellence. Paper and poster authors are encouraged to apply. Students who are not paper authors are also eligible for grants. Other criteria will include evidence of a serious interest in networking, as demonstrated by coursework and project experience. In most cases, no more than one student will be funded from each school.

The amount of support provided to each student is intended to cover the student's travel (economy airfare), registration, lodging at the conference hotel (four nights based on double occupancy), food, and local transportation. The breakdown of costs will differ based on the location of the recipient and is not expected to exceed 1000€.
The travel award will be handled via reimbursement. For any expense that is covered, a receipt is required. An expense report form and other required forms will have to be turned in after the conference. The reimbursement will be sent six to eight weeks after the documents are received. Details will be announced to the award recipients.

The recipients of the travel grants will be decided by the student travel committee:

• Edmundo Monteiro, Chair (University of Coimbra)
• Daniel Kofman (Ecole Nationale Superieure de Telecommunications, Paris)
• Fernando Boavida (University of Coimbra)
• Augusto Casaca (Technical University of Lisbon)

An application for a travel grant will consist of a letter from the student and a recommendation letter from the student's advisor. The letter from the student should

• indicate their affiliation and any other personal information the student feels is relevant to support their case.
• indicate specifically any items regarding this year's conference (e.g., paper topics) that would favor their receipt of the grant over other applicants.
• include a brief summary of research interests and accomplishments to date, contain a description of areas reflected in the IFIP Networking 2006 program that would impact the student's research,
• include a short (1/2 page) vita, containing relevant coursework and grades.
• include their estimated expense in Euro for attending the conference  (total, and breakdown by conference registration,  travel, lodging, and meals).

In addition, the student's advisor should send a letter of recommendation to the committee. This letter should

• confirm that the student is a Ph.D. candidate in good standing,
• indicate why the student would benefit from attending the conference,
• elaborate on the strengths and potential contributions of the student,
• indicate current funding status, or explain why the student is in need of a travel grant.

Send application and recommendation letters (in English) by e-mail to: networking2006@dei.uc.pt  in ASCII (highly preferable), or PDF format ONLY.

•  March 31, 2006, 17:00 GMT Application submission deadline
•  March 7, 2006 Notification date
•  April 14, 2006 Acceptance confirmation

Recipients will be required to accept the grant by this date, so that alternates can be notified in the event that a recipient declines. The early notification will assist in finding cheaper airline tickets.