The 2016 AQUA Biennial meeting, in Auckland New Zealand, 5 – 9^th December 2016 is rapidly approaching. This meeting, with the theme Quaternary perspectives from the city of volcanoes is shaping up to be our best ever, with some exciting Keynote speakers and about 110 people submitting Abstracts. More details about the conference, held in Old Government House in downtown Auckland, can be found at https://www.niwa.co.nz/climate/research-projects/climate-present-and-past/Aqua2016. Early bird registration continues until October 25.

The AQUA biennial meetings are relatively informal and particularly aim to encourage students and early career researchers to present the results of their research. The meetings definitely showcase the diversity of the Australasian Quaternary community and research.

The Executive Committee of the Australasian Quaternary Association (AQUA) is pleased to announce that they will offer up to six Travel Grants of up to $500 each (AQUA reserves the right to vary the amount and/or number of Grants that it awards) to support attendance at the Auckland 2016 AQUA Biennial meeting.

In the past the AQUA “student travel prizes” have subsidised the attendance of postgraduate students and ECR (<5 years since graduation): we have recognised that some members of the Australasian Quaternary community do not always have the means to attend meetings and hence we have broadened the criteria and in particular added a ‘needs’ component to the eligibility. Awardees of the Travel Grants are expected to have submitted an Abstract (for either a talk or a poster) at the AQUA Biennial Meeting and to write a short article for Quaternary Australasia after the meeting.

So: we invite students, postdocs and other members of the AQUA community to apply for one of these Travel Grants. To be eligible you need to:

1)         be a current financial member of AQUA;

2)         fill out an application form (available on the AQUA website’s Awards page),

3)         send us proof that you have submitted an Abstract and registered for the AQUA conference.

All applications will be assessed on the basis of academic merit and benefit to the recipient but the Executive Committee will also consider need as a criteria. (This latter criterion might include being unemployed, the lack of support from their host institution, or the lack of funding to attend the conference. Active contributors to the Australasian Quaternary community are more likely to be eligible. Having a continuing position at an institution will probably discount you from this component of the Grants.)

The application form can be downloaded here aqua-auckland-biennial-meeting-travel-award-form. The deadline for applications is October 10^th 2016. Applications should be sent to s.mooney@unsw.edu.au.