AQUA is pleased to announce additional support for students to attend and present at the AQUA Biennial Meeting, held 6–10 July 2026 in Sydney. There are two pools of funding available – one for supporting travel to the biennial, and another related to the Coring Australasia event held on 7th July 2026.

AQUA and AINSE supporting student travel to AQUA Biennial

AINSE and AQUA will support successful applicants with up to $500 AUD to assist with flight costs to the 2026 AQUA Biennial.

ANZIC and AQUA supporting student attendance at Coring Australasia

Two schemes are available to support student attendance at the “Coring Australasia” ANZIC meeting on Tuesday 7th July.

  • $500 AUD for either travel or accommodation is available from AQUA (jointly funded with ANZIC). Due Friday 30th April 2026.
  • ANZIC is offering its own travel funding to support student attendance at the same event. This funding is competitive and provides up to $1500 AUD in support. Due Monday 20th April 2026.

These two schemes are exclusive – students can receive support from only one of the two.

To apply for the ANZIC travel fund, follow the instructions found at the bottom of the page found here: https://www.iodp.org.au/coring-australasia/. Applications for that pool are due by April 20th.

To apply for the AQUA-led scheme for Coring Australasia, please return the completed application documents detailed at the bottom of this page via email to AQUA 2026 conference AQUA2026@unsw.edu.au by 5pm AEDT Friday 30th April 2026. We will endeavour to announce the outcome the following week.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the two AQUA travel support schemes, a student must:

  1. be a current member of AQUA (https://aqua.org.au/membership/become-an-aqua-member/).
  2. be enrolled as a student at the time of application.
  3. submit an abstract for a first-authored oral or poster presentation along with the application.
  4. have a genuine financial need to request travel support. Students with adequate grant support for attendance are not eligible.
  5. submit all required application documents by the deadline.

Assessment criteria

Applications will be assessed by an AQUA Executive subcommittee. Ranking will be based on:

  • Quality of the submitted abstract
  • Financial need and/or lack of alternative funding
  • Benefit to the applicant and the AQUA community

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

Priority will be given to applicants who have not registered because of financial need, have paid costs personally and have not previously received AQUA travel support.

Because funding is limited, applicants who already have sufficient financial support for conference attendance are asked not to apply.

All information provided will be treated as strictly confidential.

Required documents

The following documents must be sent to
AQUA2026@unsw.edu.au by 5pm AEDT Friday 30th April 2026:

  1. Completed application form (including a statement of financial need, evidence of funding, and anticipated benefits to research and the AQUA community). Click this link for the application form. Alternatively, try this link.
  2. A copy of your first-authored AQUA conference abstract.
  3. Flight details (if already purchased).
  4. Evidence of personal expense to attend the meeting

Outcomes are expected to be announced in late May.