Introduction

ADHO has a scheme for the award of bursaries in relation to its annual Digital Humanities conference.

As part of its commitment to promote the development and application of appropriate digital methods in humanities scholarship, each year ADHO awards up to TEN bursaries to students and young scholars who are members of an ADHO constituent organisation and who have papers or posters accepted for presentation at the annual Digital Humanities international conference. Applications for a bursary must be made in accordance with the Application Procedure specified below. Because paper/poster acceptance is a pre-requisite, the ADHO Awards Committee can consider applications only after the Programme Committee has decided which papers are to be accepted. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application as soon as possible thereafter. A participant in a multi-author paper or poster is eligible for an award, but it must be clear that s/he is contributing substantially to the paper/poster.

Purpose

The purpose of the bursary scheme is to assist students and young scholars to attend the annual Digital Humanities conferences, to encourage them to make a contribution to scholarship in the digital humanities, and to promote the involvement of outstanding young scholars in the application of information and communications technologies in humanities research.

Terms and eligibility

ADHO has attached the following conditions to the award of its annual conference bursaries:

• The bursaries are intended to cover expenses incurred in attending the conference. Successful applicants will be able to claim expenses as follows:
  • the conference fee
  • accommodation (normal maximum 50 GBP per night)
  • travel (economy class)
  • meals not covered by the conference fee (normal maximum 10 GBP per meal)
Note-1: where expenses are higher than the 'normal maximum' for unavoidable reasons, they should be cleared in advance if at all possible with the ADHO Treasurer.
Note-2: Bursary winners are expected to attend the Conference Dinner as guests of ADHO - see below.


• Awards will be made only to paid-up subscribers to Literary and Linguistic Computing, the official print journal of ADHO. Subscription to the journal is the means by which someone becomes a member of one of the ADHO constituent organisations. There is a special rate for student subscribers. Applicants will be asked to quote their LLC subscription number in their application, and this will be checked by the Chair of the Bursary Awards Panel.


• To be eligible for an award, an applicant must be either a 'student' or a 'young scholar'. To qualify as a 'student', an applicant must be able to supply evidence of registration for full- or part-time study at a recognized institution of higher education. To qualify as a 'young scholar', applicants must either (i) provide proof that they will be aged 30 years or less at the start of the conference; or (ii) explain clearly, with relevant substantiating evidence, why the Bursary Awards Panel should consider them to be 'young scholars', for example that they began their academic careers late, and have not yet had the opportunity to establish themselves in their discipline.


• A participant in a multi-author paper or poster is eligible for an award, but evidence must be presented that s/he is contributing substantially to the paper/poster.

Awards will be made only where sufficient information has been submitted to enable the Bursary Awards Panel to come to a confident decision. It is therefore in the interests of applicants to submit as full information as possible. Supporting documentation, e.g. proof of date of birth, is not required at the time of the application. However, the successful applicants will be required to fax copies of relevant documents when their awards are notified to them.

Awards procedure

• The awards will be decided by a Bursary Awards Panel appointed by the ADHO Standing Committee on Awards (SCA). The panel will be chaired by a member of the SCA, and will normally include the ADHO Treasurer and at least two members of the Programme Committee of the conference for which the bursary applications have been made. It may also be of practical benefit to include the Local Organiser or her/his representative as a non-voting member of the panel.
• The decisions of the Bursary Awards Panel will be final.
• The Bursary Awards Panel will consider all bursary applicants whose papers or posters have been accepted by the Programme Committee of the conference.
• Successful applicants will be notified as soon as possible after the awards are decided.
• Successful applicants will then be asked to provide any additional documentation necessary to support their application, e.g. proof of date of birth.
• The bursaries, in the form of a certificate and a cheque, will normally be presented at the Conference Dinner, which award winners will be invited to attend, free of charge, as guests of honour of ADHO.
• Recipients will be asked to specify whether they wish to receive their award by cheque or by money transfer, and whether the payment is to go to them as individuals or to the institution where they are students or are employed.

Application procedure

Applications are made using an application form which is to be provided on the conference website of the Digital Humanities conference for which the paper or poster has been submitted. The format of the application form is unlikely to change a great deal from year to year, but it is the responsibility of the SCA Chair to ensure that the Local Organiser receives a copy of the application form that is to be used in good time for inclusion in the conference website (normally by no later than 1 November in the year preceding the conference).

The deadline for receipt of applications is 31 January in the year of the conference.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the Local Organiser:

• to ensure that the application form and submission process are set up so as to ensure that members of the Bursary Awards Panel receive copies of all applications submitted.
• to ensure that arrangements are made for the attendance of the Bursary winners at the Conference Dinner, and for the Bursaries to be presented at the appropriate time during the dinner.

It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Bursary Awards Panel:

• to ensure that applicants are notified of the progress of the awards process, including confirmation of receipt of their application, and prompt notice of the outcome.
• to correspond with the bursary winners to ensure they provide any additional information that may be required, and to ensure they understand the terms of the award, including attendance at the Conference Dinner as guests of honour of ADHO.
• to notify the names and details of the bursary winners to the Local Organiser and the ADHO Treasurer in good time for arrangements to be made for their attendance at the Conference Dinner, and for the appropriate payment for this to be made to the Local Organiser by the ADHO Treasurer.
• to arrange for suitable certificates of award to be prepared ready for presentation at the Conference Dinner.

It is the responsiblity of the ADHO Treasurer, in advance of the conference, to make the appropriate arrangements for each of the bursaries to be paid.