Information about grants for ESSAI

The purpose of the Travel Grant is to support applicants who have limited or no access to other funding for supporting their travel. Applicants must be members of a EurAI member society. The grant can only be used to support your attendance at ESSAI.
By accepting the grant, you confirm that you will participate in the Summer School and that your total expenses (including travel, accommodation and registration fee) equal or exceed the value of the grant.

The next ESSAI Summer School for which you can apply for a Travel Grant is ESSAI-2025. The amount of the travel grant awarded to each student will be 350€ (amount equal to the early registration fee for the school).

Application Process

Applications for the Travel Grant should be submitted as a single zip file (formatted with your name as LastNameFirstName.zip) containing the following documents in PDF format:

• A brief statement from the applicant (up to 500 words) outlining how they have contributed to the field of AI and how they will benefit from attending the event.
• A detailed CV including a list of publications.
• If the applicant is a student, a signed letter from the applicant's supervisor certifying their status (e.g., PhD student) and why the support of EurAI is needed (e.g., there are no such grants available to the student). If the applicant is not a student, a signed letter explaining why the support of EurAI is needed.
• Proof of membership in a EurAI member society. Explanation of this requirement: EurAI is a society with members, not individuals, but national societies from various European countries. The list of national societies that are members of EurAI can be found here.
  If you are not a member of a EurAI society already, you should become a member before submitting your application, so that the relevant membership certificate is part of your application.
  If you are not sure which national society to become a member of, please discuss this with your supervisor who should be able to advise you on the matter (however, any national AI society which is a member of EurAI will do!).
  If your application does not include this proof of membership, it will be desk-rejected.

Applicants for travel grants to ESSAI-2025 should send their applications to Prof. Manolis Koubarakis.

May 1, 2025 announcement: A number of student travel grants have already been allocated to successful applicants who submitted their applications before the deadline of April 25. EurAI has now decided to offer a limited number of extra student travel grants. Applications for these new ESSAI-2025 Travel Grants will be evaluated on a rolling basis, with new batches closing every Wednesday at midnight. Grants will be awarded weekly until the available funds are exhausted. The eligibility criteria, amount of grant, way of payment etc. are identical to the first batch of awarded grants and are clearly described on this web page.

Selection criteria

In the likely case that the total amount requested exceeds the available budget, applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The extent to which attendance at ESSAI will impact the applicant's research career.
• The career stage of the applicant, where students will be given priority over postdoctoral researchers and faculty.
• The extent to which other funding is available to the applicant.

Payment of the grant

In the case of a successful application, proof of participation in the event will need to be provided. As a result, the Travel Grant will only be paid after ESSAI-2025 has taken place.