A. The IFCS Travel Awards Program

A.1 Purpose
The IFCS provides awards to single persons in the framework of its Travel Awards Program (TAP).
In the framework of TAP, awards are given for researchers with interests in classification, data analysis and related areas who are in the early stages of their professional careers as a support for attending an IFCS conference. Candidates shall be under the age of 35 years at the time T, say, of the conference (on 11 July 2000). Under exceptional circumstances, the President of a Member Society may petition the IFCS President for a small waive of the age rule.

A.2 The prizes
A TAP award is a cash payment to a candidate who attends the IFCS conference in Namur as a support for travel, accommodation and conference costs. Details such as the total amount of money awarded, the maximum value of an award (which may depend on the Member Society to which a candidate is assigned to or on the location from which a candidate travels to the Namur conference) or the geographical distribution of awards (if appropriate) are discussed between the IFCS President and the Executive Committee, the result is approved by the Council. The actual value of each award shall be fixed by an Awards Committee during the evaluation of the candidates (see B. below), it shall not exceed the maximum value fixed by the Council.

A.3 Application for a prize
To be considered for a TAP awarding competition, a candidate must submit an application and shall be responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the information submitted (see C.3 below). The application and any supporting documentation will be written in English.

A.4 Disbursement of the award
It is expected that a candidate who has been selected for an award attends the IFCS conference for at least three days. Under this condition, the IFCS Treasurer (or a designated representative) shall pay the award to the candidate at the conference place.

B. The Awards Committee

B.1 Appointment of an Awards Committee
The IFCS President appoints an Awards Committee (AC) of at least four persons (preferably from different Member Societies) based on the consultation with the IFCS Executive Committee. One member is appointed to chair the AC. This committee should conduct a competition for awards that will be conferred at the IFCS conference in Namur, monitor the nominations by the presidents of IFCS Member Societies, compile the global list of candidates, prepare recommendations for awards, and report its activities and recommendations to the IFCS President.
The IFCS Secretary shall be a member of the AC, ex officio, and will assist the Chair of the AC in administrative matters.
The AC's structure and operation should conform to the following guidelines and procedures.

B.2 Terms of office
The AC is an ad-hoc committee which is appointed for the period of the competition, i.e., from the end of the Rome conference to the end of the Namur conference. Being no standing committee, it is not to be entrenched in the constitution and bylaws of the IFCS, but serves at the pleasure of the President.

B.3 Tasks of the Awards Committee
The AC shall conduct a competition for the TAP awards for young researchers that will be conferred at the Namur conference. Its responsibilities include
(a) publicizing the availability of awards, the application procedure and a time schedule
(b) encouraging eligible persons to become candidates,
(c) contacting the presidents of the Member Societies for their recommendations,
(d) ensuring that candidates for awards are treated fairly,
(e) compiling a final selection (eventually: a ranking) of candidates, and
(f) submitting a recommendation on awards for approval by the IFCS President.

The evaluations of candidates shall be based on recommendations made by the presidents of the Member Societies.

B.4 Decision procedures
(a) If the AC decides that a candidate should not receive an award, its decision shall be final.
(b) If the AC decides that a candidate should receive an award, it shall forward the candidate's name and the amount of the cash awarded to the IFCS President for final approval.
(c) If the IFCS President does not approve the AC's recommendation of an award to a candidate, he will contact the AC again and take a final decision.

C. Application for a TAP Award

C.1 Submitting an Application
Applications are indirectly submitted to the Chair of the AC through the presidents of the IFCS Member Societies: Researchers and persons who want to apply for a TAP award submit their application to the president of an IFCS Member Society.
The presidents of the Member Societies have to select from the obtained applications no more than two (possibly ranked) candidates for further consideration and recommendation (see D.4). They forward the name(s) of the selected candidate(s) together with the corresponding application documents and a list of the names of all obtained applications to the Chair of the AC.
In unusual cases where no assignment to an existing Member Society is appropriate (e.g., the Group-at-Large), the application can be made directly to the Chair of the AC.

C.2 Deadline
18 January 2000 (week T-23) is the deadline for the submission of applications for the Namur conference to the Presidents of Member Societies (in unusual cases: to the Chair of the AC). The AC cannot guarantee that applications received thereafter would be considered.

C.3 Application forms
The AC designs an application form and a time table which would be available from the AC Chair or from the IFCS World Wide Web home page. The presidents of the Member Societies should be consulted to ensure that the form will elicit the information needed to evaluate (and eventually to rank) the candidates. Such information might include:
- the candidate's name and date of birth;
- how to contact the candidate (address, phone, fax, e-mail);
- the location from which the candidate would travel to the Namur conference;
- the candidate's memberships in IFCS Member Societies;
- the candidate's experience, expertise or education in classification, data analysis and
related areas including any publications;
- whether the candidate submits an invited or contributed paper at Namur.
Presenting a paper is not an absolute condition.
The form should be short, self-contained and self-explanatory.

D. Procedures for the Awards Committee and officers

D.1 General
The Namur TAP competition has a two-year schedule in which the first 16 months involve publicity and the last 8 months involve
- the specification of awards,
- the selection and evaluation of candidates and
- the determination of awards.
A time schedule is included in the following paragraphs.

D.2 Publicity
The AC should ensure that information about the TAP awards appears in all announcements and circulars of the Namur conference. The AC should develop TAP announcements and publicity for the IFCS Newsletter, the WWW IFCS home page, and the circulars of the IFCS Member Societies. The application form is sent to all presidents of IFCS Member Societies and should be available on the IFCS home page.
All announcements should cite the address of the Chair of the AC and the IFCS home page as sources of information on the TAP.

D.3 Specifying the Awards
From 1 Nov 1999 to 18 Jan 2000 (i.e., between the weeks T-33 and T-23) the AC negotiates with the IFCS Executive Committee to determine: the number of awards to be offered; the strategy for their allocation to Member Societies (if scheduled); contingent strategies (e.g., if there are more applications than awards); the values of the awards (if value depends on distance traveled to Namur), in conformity with the Council's decisions (see A.2).

D.4 Evaluating the Candidates
(a) The president of each Member Society shall be responsible for evaluating (and eventualy ranking) the candidates which have sent him their applications or which have been assigned by the AC to his Member Society. The president may recommend that an award be divided among several candidates. If possible and as an aid to candidate evaluation, the organisators of the IFCS conference will give the presidents of the Member Societies a list of the persons who have registered for, or submitted papers for the conference.
18 February 2000 (i.e., week T-19) is the deadline for the presidents of Member Societies to send to the Chair of the AC their recommendations for awards (no more than two candidates) and, eventually, the ranking of the candidates.
It is understood that the president of a Member Society may vest his or her responsibilities in other persons or committees.

(b) The AC will compile an (eventually ranked) global list of candidates, for ratification by the IFCS President. In preparing this list, the AC will attempt to honour the recommendations of the Member Societies, but compromises may be required when, for example, there are more recommended candidates than available awards or funds. If the AC detects a problem with the recommendations, it will consult the president of the Member Society (and, if necessary, the IFCS President) to find a solution.

10 March 2000 (i.e., week T -16) is the deadline for the AC to send its recommendations to the IFCS President for approval.

27 March 2000 (i.e., week T-14) is the deadline for the IFCS President to take his or her decision and to inform the Chair of the AC on this decision.

D.5 Information on the Results of the Evaluation
Successful and unsuccessful candidates are officially informed by the AC Chair of the results of the evaluation process by by 10 April 2000 (i.e., week T-12), and the Executive Committee makes a public announcement of the successful candidates at the same date.
The AC will ensure that the TAP awards actually conferred are mentioned in the conference documents and in the IFCS Newsletter. The names of the successful candidates will be read at the first plenary session of the conference.

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