Integrating the SIGCHI Development Fund with the Specialized Conferences Development Fund
This is Part I of a two-part post on updates to the SIGCHI Development Fund as of July 2023. Read Part II to learn about our new guidelines for inclusive organization of events/initiatives supported by the SIGCHI Development Fund.
TL;DR: The SIGCHI Development Fund is subsuming the Specialized Conferences Development Fund, with the aim of increasing navigability of grant programs, and supporting the transparent and equitable review of proposals.
In the past few years, the SIGCHI Executive Committee (EC) has sought to streamline our community support funds. For example, SIGCHI’s Submittable portal has become a way to view all the possible calls that are available to apply to, reducing the work of navigating them. In another example, the Gary Marsden Travel Awards merged the SIGCHI Student Travel Grants and the Gary Marsden Student Development Fund, which made it easier to then incorporate community feedback across programs, such as fast-track reviews for visa applicants or reimbursement of visa fees.
Continuing our streamlining efforts, the SIGCHI Development Fund (SDF) has subsumed our fund for conferences, the erstwhile Specialized Conferences Development Fund. This integration makes the SDF the sole portal for all grant types: specialized conferences, chapters, sustainability activities, and other community events. This was a change envisioned over the past year, in conversation with all EC members, and presented to the Council of Steering Committee Chairs before implementation. Each type of grant will continue to have a dedicated budget and be reviewed by the EC member in charge, i.e., VP Conferences, VP Chapters, AC Sustainability, and/or AC Community Support. With this integration, requests of USD 5K — 10K will continue to be encouraged, with larger grants possible with justification. Ultimately, we aim to support more equitable access to funding opportunities and prioritization of proposals, while maintaining flexibility in grant size and involvement of reviewers with the appropriate expertise. Core motivations for this update to the SDF are described in more detail below.
First, we aimed to improve navigability of our funding opportunities. Before integration, the funds had separate webpages and modes of application, requiring more work from SIGCHI members to learn about the various opportunities. It also multiplied the effort needed to raise awareness amongst SIGCHI members of these various opportunities and updates to each, making it more challenging to reach everyone with key information. Streamlining the funds and creating a single application portal allows us to be more transparent about what opportunities are available and better ensure that key updates (such as this one) are brought to members’ attention.
Second, we aimed to simplify review processes and make funding decisions more transparent. Previously, there was already overlap between the SDF and our fund for conferences, given that the SDF had always received requests from conferences, chapters, and other event organizers. This resulted in needing to coordinate reviews across both funds, and made it more challenging to understand where funds were going and whether they were being distributed equitably across the community. Integrating the funds allows for the review process to be streamlined, such that the SDF committee can ensure reviews are quickly channeled to the appropriate reviewers, and that all requests are visible to all reviewers, allowing us to consider how to distribute funds equitably.
Third, streamlining funds allows us to ensure consistent calls, applications, and reviews. With the integration, we aim for it to be clearer to applicants what types of proposals that we will prioritize — that is, those that align with the SDF’s aims of supporting innovation, equity, and flourishing of new groups within the HCI community. With the same application for all events and initiatives, reviewers are also supported in evaluating all proposals in similar ways, ensuring the goals of the SDF are centered throughout the evaluation. In a prime example, all proposals will be evaluated for alignment with the new guidelines for SDF events and initiatives, which we encourage you to read about in Part II of this blog post series.
