R10 Young Professionals New/Dormant Affinity Group Fund

Purpose

IEEE R10 Young Professionals New/Dormant Affinity Group Fund is created to provide financial support for inactive or newly formed Young Professionals Affinity Groups to kick start their activities to increase local volunteers’ engagement, satisfaction, and consequently gain enough momentum to function as a fully sustainable Young Professionals Affinity Group.

Who Can Submit a Proposal?

Any dormant or newly formed Young Professionals Affinity Group within R10 can apply for this fund. The proposal should be submitted by the project lead. The project lead should be the focal volunteer till the completion of the project, who can be any of the following officers:

1. Section Chair
2. Section Young Professionals Affinity Group Chair

Fund Qualification Criteria

Any Young Professionals Affinity Group that falls into any of these categories are eligible to apply for funding;

1. Affinity groups that were formed within the last 2 years.
2. Affinity groups with less than 20 members
3. Affinity groups that have reported less than 2 activities in previous year.

Proposals must fulfill all the criteria to be eligible for the grant. Each proposal shall consist of a single activity or series of activities. Activities could be organized in any format including in-person or virtual mode.

The activities proposed by each affinity group, must collectively deliver the following;

1. Membership drive to enhance IEEE Young Professional Memberships
2. Briefing on young professional affinity group event and officer reporting via Vtools
3. At least one professional development session for Young Professional members
4. A briefing session for students on the importance of continuing IEEE membership after graduation.

Please note:
* Each Young Professionals Affinity Group is only allowed to obtain this fund once a year.

** The virtual activities shall be hosted via any online platform (e.g. Webex, Zoom, Youtube or Google Meet). Virtual activities should be recorded, and the links to access the recorded clips should be stated in the activity report that will be submitted for reimbursement claims (please read the “Reimbursement Claims” section below for more details).

*** Face-to-Face activities must adhere to the provided Standard Operating Procedures set by the country where the activities will be carried out.

Proposal Judging Criteria

Funding will be granted for quality proposals evaluated based on the judging criteria and upon first come first serve basis. The proposals submitted should include a brief overview of the activities to be conducted along with the impact of the activities. The proposed date(s), program and expected number of participants should be included in the proposal. The proposal format should follow the template provided. Please download the proposal template at this link.

The proposals will be judged according to the following:

1. Nature of the proposed activities and its objectives
2. The quality of the proposed activities and its speakers or event organization.
3. Impact – A description of how the planned activities can benefit Young Professional members
4. Metrics to measure its success (Number of YP members/participants)
5. Financial support requested from R10 Young Professionals.

Funding Limits

Each selected proposal can be funded with maximum of US$ 750. Each proposal shall consist of a single activity or series of activities. However, the total expenditure calculated across all activities under one proposal, must not exceed US$ 750.

Timeline

1. Call for proposals: 5th March 2021
2. Last date to submit proposals: 15th May 2021
3. Activity Completion & Reporting: 31st October 2021
4. Fund Transfer: November – December 2021

* The project lead will be notified about the funding decision within 1 month from the submission date.

** R10 Young Professionals committee will stop accepting applications before the deadline (15th May 2021), if all pre-allocated funds are exhausted.

Recognition

E-certificates will be awarded to all Affinity Groups that have completed the proposed activities under the funding. Activity article will be published in R10 Young Professionals website and Region 10 Newsletter.

Reimbursement Claims

Reimbursement claims are only applicable for proposals that are selected for funding. A detailed report should be submitted within the specified time period to IEEE R10 Young Professionals Committee. The report should include a brief article with the activity details accompanied by pictures (which will be published in the R10 newsletter). If multiple activities are conducted, all activity details should be summarized into a single article. Recording links of the virtual activities should be stated in the activity report. The report should include the attended number of participants (specifying IEEE members attendees). The report format should strictly follow the templates provided. The report templates will be provided to all fund recipients during the results notification stage.

The funds will be transferred only upon receiving following items:

1. Activity Report (If multiple activities are conducted, all activities details should be included into a single activity report)
2. Finance/expense Report (If multiple activities are conducted, financial details of all activities should be included into a single finance/expense report)
3. All Receipts

Note: The reimbursement claim reports, and all receipts should be submitted by the project lead.

Submission Guidelines

All proposals and activity reports should be submitted through the R10 Funding Portal. Please refer to the User Guide for a detailed step by step guide on using the R10 funding portal.

Contact

For enquiries please contact: r10yp@ieee.org