AQUA is offering support to attend and present at the biennial meeting in 6th-10th July, 2026 in Sydney. The support will be a reduction in the registration costs. We aim for $200 per recipient but this may be adjusted depending on demand.

To be considered for support, applicants must be current members of AQUA and submit an abstract to present either a talk or a poster at the conference. Support will be granted according to the assessment criteria detailed below.

Please visit https://aqua.org.au/membership/become-an-aqua-member/ to become a member or renew your membership.

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 6th March 2026. We will endeavour to announce the outcome the following week.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible, a student must:

  1. be a current member of AQUA or become a member before the support is provided.
  2. be enrolled in a higher degree by research 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

Conference support will be assessed by an AQUA executive sub-committee on student prizes and applications will be ranked primarily according to: (i) financial need and, or, lack of other funding, with secondary consideration given to (ii) benefit to the recipient and AQUA community, and (iii) quality of the abstract, as evidenced by the required application documents.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered by the assessment committee.

Priority will be given to students who have not previously received AQUA travel awards.

AQUA conference support is intended to support students who lack funding to attend the biennial meeting. Because funding is limited, we ask students not to apply if they already have funding to support their travel.

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 6th March 2026:

  1. Fill in the application form (click here) with a summary of financial need, evidence of funding, anticipated benefits to your research and the AQUA community.
  2. A copy of your first-authored AQUA abstract to be submitted to the conference.
  3. A one-page academic CV with the name of your supervisor and programme.