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We have noted that some talk proposals mentioned a need for grant support but have not put in an application before the deadline. We will address this directly to people who have submitted a talk before the CfP deadline.

Opportunity Grants

DjangoCon Europe 2019 offers grants to attendees and speakers, so that those who might otherwise not be able to attend won't hesitate to participate. Some expenses for the conference attendance (which could include travel, hotel, registration etc) will be covered for opportunity grant recipients.

We actively encourage you to apply for an opportunity grant. While we wish we could give grants to everyone who applies, we do not have the funds to do that. Our goal is to maximise the impact our grant program has, within the limited funds we have.

We try to do this in a number of ways:

  • Conferences are a meeting place for developers from all around the globe. Therefore, the selection process is designed to benefit people that we believe will make a difference, particularly speakers and tutorial presenters.
  • Additionally, the selection process attempts to promote a more diverse DjangoCon Europe. While encouraging diversity takes many forms, we're happy to use the opportunity grant program as a very direct method of supporting diversity within the Django community. In particular, our grant program prioritises those who belong to under-represented or marginalised groups in our industry, as travelling to our events is likely to be more difficult and financially onerous for them.
  • When prioritising grant applications, we try to get a feel for how much impact this grant will have on the applicant and the wider community and country, compared to others. In this, we consider things like involvement in a local community, social impact of the applicant's activities, and how accessible other conferences are to them.

Our program prioritises speakers first, and then anyone who is part of an under-represented or marginalised group. They include, but are not limited to:

  • women and other gender minorities of all expressions and identities; e.g. trans, agender and non-binary people
  • people of colour
  • sexuality minorities, including asexual people
  • people with disabilities, whether visible and invisible
  • neurodivergent people
  • people with chronic illnesses or diseases
  • religious and ethnic minorities
  • age minorities (under ~21, over ~60)
  • people experiencing poverty
  • homeless and home/food-insecure people
  • caregivers of children or other dependents
  • people who have experienced trauma and its aftermath (PTSD, anxiety, etc)
  • people living with or recovering from substance abuse

The closing date for grant applications is was January 20th, 23:59 (UTC+1) - along with the Call for Participation. We aim to inform you of the results by mid-February. If you would like to submit a proposal, and would need a grant in order to attend if your proposal is accepted, please ensure you fill in both the CfP form and the opportunity grant application form. Important: if you need a grant, you must apply before the deadline. Speakers do not automatically receive funding to attend.

Getting your employer's support

If you are an accepted speaker, and you don't need a grant because your employer is covering your costs of attending, we can recognise your employer for their support. For now, we're planning to get their logo in the programme and a post on the job board. This is opt-in. We hope this will make it a little easier for you to convince your employer to contribute towards your conference costs as a speaker.

Apply now!

Lastly, we know that some of you reading this will doubt whether it's right and proper for you to apply for a grant. That's why we want to stress:

  • Have you already attended a conference in the past? That's OK.
  • Already received a grant in the past? Still OK.
  • Don't have much experience with Django? That's OK, too.
  • Don't want to take money away from someone else? Really, it's OK, everyone says that!
  • Don't feel like you deserve this? That's also OK: you do.

With our limited funds, we can't promise you will receive a grant, but if you're not sure, we encourage you to apply. If you're uncomfortable with other people knowing you received a grant, you don't have to tell them - our policy is to never publicly identify grant applicants or recipients without their explicit permission.

If you have questions, you can write [email protected].

The application window ended at January 20th