Award Travel Committee Committee Report Date: Sept 22, 2015 Old Business: The main activity of the Travel Award Committee (ATC) since the IBC 2014 in Florence has been the development of guidelines for the selection travel award recipients among IBS members from developing countries in non-IBC years and its implementation once in the first half of 2015. In total, we had only seven applicants. From these, five were non-eligible because they were not attending IBS meetings or had support recently, among other reasons. Only three applicants received the travel awards. Other applicants entered in a continuous basis, which we accepted given the very low application rate. Current Business: ATC discussed the very low application rate. We all were very disappointed with the extremely low application numbers. We have discussed this issue trying to understand the reasons for that. Maybe we had little advertisement or it was directed towards the wrong channels. However, at least in some active regions there was a reasonable announcement of the award to the members. Then, if members were aware of it and did not apply, may be they do not need it after all. Considering some regions, we realized that most members are able to get funds for their local IBS meetings. May be we should focus on making clear that the travel awards could fund inter-region travel in non-IBC years: a member from developing country attending an IBS meeting in another region. Action Items: 1. We need to advertise better the travel award to increase the number of applicants. Recommendations to Executive Board: 1. During the IBC, advertise the existence of the travel award funds. 2. Give some visibility to the travel award. For example, calling the recipients or one of them as their representative on stage during the opening ceremony of IBS. 2/12/2013 5:45:37 PM Award Travel Committee Committee Report Travel Awards Presented to Members for Participation in IBS Regional Conferences - 2015 1 - Jeno Reiczigel (Hungary) received $800 USD to attend the Nordic-Baltic Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, 7-10 June 2015. 2 - Denitsa Grigorova (Bulgaria) received $750 to attend the 8th conference of the Eastern Mediterranean Region Conference in Cappadocia, Turkey. 3- Olgun Aydid (Turkey) received $750 USD to attend the Spanish Biometric Conference in Bilboa 4- Yehenew Getachew Kifle (Ethiopia) received $2000 to attend the Ugandan region’s East African Conference. 5- Guillermo Sabino (Argentina) received $1200 USD to attend the Spanish Biometric Conference in Biboa, Spain. 6-Danjuma Jibasen (Nigeria) received $1640 USD to attend the East African Conference in Uganda. 7-Luis F. Grajales (Columbia) received $2000 USD to attend the Spanish Biometric Conference in Bilboa. 8-Linda Chaba (Kenya) received $605 USD to attend the East African Conference in Uganda. 2/12/2013 5:45:37 PM