Family Cares Grant Program

Motivation and Goal

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Family Cares Grant Program (FCGP) aims to support GRSS members of any grade and gender, with primary responsibilities for caring for family members, to attend IEEE GRSS sponsored conferences. The goal of the program is to relieve the financial burden of family care responsibilities (for children, seniors, partners, etc.) preventing IEEE GRSS members from attending an IEEE GRSS conference due to such additional responsibility. The FCGP prioritizes applicants with primary financial care responsibilities authoring a paper or poster or has an acceptance decision letter from the conference.

Applicants will be evaluated based on voluntary responses to a set of questions and associated criteria. In addition to providing information for applicant evaluation, these data will inform GRSS about potential improvements for the FCGP. Access to direct responses will be restricted to the IEEE GRSS FCGP evaluation committee only.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be current members of IEEE GRSS and be in at least their second year of continuous IEEE GRSS membership.
• Applicants may be of any grade of IEEE membership and any gender.
• Applicants must demonstrate they want to attend an IEEE GRSS conference but have competing family care responsibilities.
• Applicants may apply each year, but applicants who have not previously received the grant will be given priority. A recipient can receive a grant no more than once every three years. 

FCGP Details

• Each grant shall be a maximum of $500 USD per grant recipient.
• Grants are awarded to eligible individuals to support expenses for family care obligations, which can include but are not limited to childcare, sick care, and elderly care.
• For any family care costs incurred by the recipient, the recipient must provide auditable/verifiable receipts for final grant disbursement.
• Only IEEE GRSS sponsored conferences are eligible for this grant and include:
  • IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)
  • IEEE Mediterranean and Middle-East Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (M2GARSS)
  • IEEE India Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (InGARSS)

 
Applicant Review Criteria

• IEEE GRSS membership
• FCGP funding history
• Other IEEE family grant funding
• Conference authorship or acceptance decision letter
• Clearly defined financial need including:
  • Submission of a narrative proposal from the applicant which summarizes their need
  • Submission of a proposed budget from the applicant describing their financial responsibilities
• Note: The applicant may also choose to include supplemental letters from a person of authority indicating the applicant has the need to care for a family member who may not be left unattended and requires alternative support in the applicant’s absence.

Important Dates

• Call for participation: January 3, 2025
• Application submission deadline: May 3, 2025
• Grant selection deadline: June 3, 2025
• Last date for expenditures: September 6, 2025
• Last date to submit expenses via Concur for reimbursement: September 7, 2025

How to Apply

The FCGP application is via Google Form, or Shimo Form for Chinese applicants. Any inquiries regarding applications can be sent to the IEEE GRSS IDEA committee at idea@grss.ieee.org. Applications will open soon!

Compliance and Reporting

FCGP recipients are expected to use the funds in accordance with the proposed budget and expenses outlined in their application through IEEE Concur. Recipients are required to submit itemized receipts demonstrating how the funds were utilized for the intended purposes covering family care responsibilities.  

By submitting your information, you are agreeing to let GRSS use the information you have provided for the purposes of personal and business marketing. Please be aware GRSS will never provide this information for use by third parties. This information would be shared via social media, e-newsletters, and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, as examples.