Travel Grants - Open Letter from ATGENDER on Travel Grants and Transparency
Dear ATGENDER conference participants, members, and supporters,
Every year, during our Spring Conferences and European Feminist Research Conferences (EFRCs), we strive to support a number of participants with travel grants. This year, after receiving several inquiries regarding the process, we find it important to share clarifications and provide greater transparency about how travel grants are allocated.
General and Structural Information:
– To begin with, it's important to note that ATGENDER is a non-profit, membership-based association. We do not receive funding from external bodies or sponsors. Our income relies entirely on individual and institutional memberships, while conference fees cover mostly the direct costs of organising each event (e.g. catering, venue rental, technical services, etc.).
​
– ATGENDER is run almost entirely by volunteers. All board members and co-chairs contribute their time and labour to organising events and managing the association without any form of remuneration. The only exception is our part-time office manager, who is employed to work up to 8 hours per week. The travel grant process is one such labour-intensive task, and each year, a new grant team invests considerable time and care to ensure the process is fair and efficient.
​
– The annual financial situation of ATGENDER fluctuates, depending on membership income (new members, renewals, dropouts) and the cost of the previous year's conference. As such, the funds available for travel grants vary from year to year. For example, our Spring Conferences and EFRCs differ in scale and financial model. In recent years, we have been able to offer conference fee waivers as part of the travel grant for Spring Conferences. However, this was not possible for EFRC 2025, as this costly event is entirely dependent on participant fees.
EFRC 2025, Facts and Figures:
– For EFRC 2025, we received 273 applications from across the globe.
​
– The total amount requested was 11.3 times higher than the budget allocated for travel grants.
​
– Applications came not only from across Europe, but also from countries that are geographically distant from the conference host country and often face stricter Schengen visa requirements, including India, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Turkey, China, Indonesia, Uganda, Brazil, and others.
​
EFRC 2025, Travel Grant Selection Process:
​
– A team of four ATGENDER board members and conference organisers carefully reviewed all 273 applications. The selection criteria included:
-
Prioritising applicants from the Global South, with exceptions made for European applicants from war-affected regions;
-
Evaluating the motivation statements submitted (unfortunately, many motivation statements simply reiterated the applicant’s research topic or abstract, which had already been accepted for the conference, and therefore were not considered);
-
Ensuring a fair geographical distribution of funds;
-
Supporting a greater number of applicants through partial funding, rather than offering full funding to a smaller group.
– In total, 22 individuals received travel support, which accounts for 9% of the applicants. (6 of these grantees who accepted the offer dropped out with no notice)
– The selection process involved five rounds of review. We want to acknowledge the immense difficulty of these decisions. Precarity is not easily comparable across diverse social, geographic, and professional contexts, and we recognise that awarding grants to some means not being able to support many others.
– Exact figures and financial details can be provided to ATGENDER members upon request.
We hope this letter provides insight into the constraints and commitments that shape the travel grant process. Please note that the amount and conditions of travel grants for the next conference will likely differ. We are committed to transparency and to continuing our efforts to make our events as accessible and inclusive as possible.
Warm regards,
The ATGENDER Board