FIAA Student Conference Grants

Information on this page:

About the grants

The Faculty of Information Alumni Association (FIAA) offers grants to Master of Information (MI) and Master of Museum Studies (MMSt) students who have been invited to a conference in order to:

  • Present a poster session, or a paper
  • Participate as a speaker or panelist

Grants are to be used to subsidize the cost of attending the conference.

Ten or more Student Conference Grants may be awarded over an academic year (September-April). A committee of alumni volunteers will decide the grant amount awarded to each recipient, but no individual award will exceed $500*.  The total of all grants awarded in an academic year will be $5,000.

A student may receive only one grant during their program at the iSchool. Grant recipients will be acknowledged on the Faculty website.

Qualifications & selection process

Applicants must:

  • Be currently registered in the MI or MMSt programs at the Faculty of Information
  • Have been invited to present a poster session, or a paper, or participate as a speaker/panelist at the conference for which they are applying
  • Commit to reporting on their conference experience and supplying a photograph, in order to receive the award
  • Complete an expense form with all original receipts attached, including boarding passes for flights, or tickets for train trips.  Expense forms are available at the iSchool Student Services Office

Meeting the minimum qualifications of the grant does not guarantee winning a grant.  Grants are assessed on a competitive basis.

Selection will be made by the FIAA Executive, based on the following criteria:

  • Location of conference
  • Financial need
  • Type of presentation to be made at the conference
  • Statement about how conference attendance will benefit the applicant in his/her graduate program
  • Quality of applicant's letter of support
  • Quality of the application
  • Topic of interest to the information community

Grant decisions are generally issued two to three weeks after the grant application deadline. Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified of the results of their application by email.
 

Application process & deadline

Applicants must:

  1. Submit one application package, containing the following items:
  • Completed application form
  • A one-page letter, including the title of the presentation, and a statement about how conference attendance will benefit the applicant in her/his program
  • A letter of support from a sponsoring iSchool professor

2.  Submit the complete application package to the FIAA Grants & Awards Committee by:

  • Email to alumni [dot] ischoolatutoronto [dot] ca or,
  • In-person, or mail to:

Faculty of Information Alumni Association
attn: FIAA Grants & Awards Committee
140 St. George Street
Bissell Building, 2nd floor
Toronto, ON    M5G 3S6

Deadlines for receipt of applications are November 30 and March 30 of each year (unless it falls on a weekend).

Next deadline: Friday, March 29, 2013

Questions?
Contact kathleen [dot] obrienatutoronto [dot] ca (Kathleen )kathleen [dot] obrienatutoronto [dot] ca (O'Brien), Alumni Association faculty representative.