Diversity and Inclusion Program

ACL 2023 is providing D&I funds for registration, caregiving, bandwidth, travel, VPN subsidies and volunteer opportunities. We strongly encourage researchers from developing countries and marginalised communities, students, and researchers with financial hurdles to apply for both subsidies and volunteering opportunities to maximise their chances of getting their registration fees waived.

Please apply for subsidies before the 31st of May using this link.

Important Dates

All deadlines are 11:59PM UTC-12:00 (“anywhere on Earth”).

Application Deadline May 31, 2023
Notification of Acceptance June 11, 2023

We aim to send all the notifications by the deadline above. Please be patient and wait for our email as we will notify you as soon as we can and no matter what the response is.

Registration and ACL Membership Subsidies

This is for getting a waiver for ACL registration. You can also request ACL membership if applicable. You will be asked to justify your application. For instance, you can say:

  • “I have an accepted paper at the main conference. I would like to apply for a registration fee waiver because my fees are not funded by my organization/institution.”
  • “I have an accepted paper at an ACL Workshop/ the SRW/ SemEval shared task, I live in a developing country [name the country] and I/my institution cannot afford the registration fees.”

Note that if you are applying for a registration fee waiver, you SHOULD NOT register for the conference until you hear from us about your D&I subsidy application. That way, you would not have to ask for a reimbursement, since you would not be charged in the first place.

Please keep in mind that we will take your justification into account when processing your application.

Travel and Accommodation Subsidies

We are also providing travel and accommodation subsidies. Priority will be given to authors, first-time attendees and folks from underrepresented communities with financial hurdles.

If you would like to attend the in-person meeting please keep in mind that if your waiver application is accepted, We are only able to pay in advance for some rooms at the conference hotel (the price needs to be included in the amount of money that you are requesting). Other accommodations and travel expenses (e.g., flight tickets) can only be reimbursed after the conference.

The number of accepted applicants and the amount of money subsidized will vary depending on the number of applicants and the funding availability.

Please answer questions regarding whether you have previously attended any *CL conferences (NAACL, EACL, AACL, ACL, EMNLP and COLING) accurately as we would like to give all first-time attendees a chance.

Caregiving and Accessibility Subsidies

We can reimburse caregiving expenses needed at the time of the conference. You need to provide receipts for your expenses. These can be babysitting, transportation costs, or other support required for yourself or your dependents, which would ease your participation. If you need any personal or technical assistance to access and navigate the conference due to a disability, we can reimburse it (e.g., if you need assistance in using gather.town due to visual impairment).

We acknowledge that accessibility needs are highly individual to each participant, so please feel free to reach out to us with any issues you might face in this regard. When justifying your caregiving and accessibility subsidy application, you can say for example: “As a caregiver, I would like to apply for a subsidy of $$ USD to take care of my child when I will be presenting my work at the conference.”

Bandwidth and VPN Subsidies

We can reimburse bandwidth or VPN expenses that you need for the conferences. You need to provide receipts for your expenses. Bandwidth subsidies would be for high-speed internet access costs for the duration of the conference only. VPN generally does not cost more than 10 USD per month and could be applied towards participation if you need anonymity to participate completely. A justification example can be:

  • “I am from a remote village where I depend on my cellular internet. I would need $$ USD to increase my quote as my current plan is not suitable for video conferencing (add a link to the tariff of your internet subscriber if possible).”
  • “I worry about my safety and privacy because … and I would like to apply for a VPN subsidy of $$ USD to avoid surveillance (link to the service provider if possible).”

Selection Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the submitted materials and provided justifications. Privacy will be respected and preference will be given to first-time attendees and applicants from underrepresented groups who are presenting a paper at the main conference/the Student Research Workshop,/any of the workshops associated with ACL, and those who do not have other means of support. As the conference will be hybrid and we are aware of the current Canadian Visa issues that people from underrepresented groups are dealing with, we may provide more virtual waivers than travel grants to help as many people as possible.

Diversity and Inclusion Chairs

Contact: acl2023dei@googlegroups.com

  • Daniel Beck, University of Melbourne (Australia)
  • Maryam Fazel-Zarandi, Meta (USA)
  • Nedjma Djouhra Ousidhoum, University of Cambridge (UK)