Thematic School Support Program 2022 /2023

Aim and Criteria - The Thematic School Support (TSS) Program aims at supporting the attendance of PhD students and Junior Post Doctoral researchers, who are members of the CSS, to Doctoral and thematic in-person, online or hybrid schools focusing on applied or theoretical issues relevant to understanding or conducting interventions related to complex systems (schools that are attached to conferences or workshops may be considered). Proposals are welcomed from all disciplinary areas and domains.

The TSS program has two modalities:

1. Funding is provided as fellowships to waive the registration fees to some participants. The Schools recipient of the TSS support will be responsible for the selection of the grantees of the fellowships, who have to be CSS members.
2. Funding is provided to the School to support them in obtaining the needed infrastructure to broadcast the school online (e.g. Zoom account, recording tools); this modality’s objective is to allow for broader participation even from those students who, given the current situation, would not be able to travel and attend an in-person event. Therefore, if this kind of funding is granted to the School, the School will be required to waive online participation fees, at least for CSS members.

To benefit from this program, the school organizers have to send their application to the CSS as indicated below. The schools applying for the current call of the TSS program must meet the following criteria:

• Have their starting date before June 30th, 2023;
• Be internationally open;
• Be approved and funded by national or international institutes/agencies/universities;
• Have a website containing all the relevant information (registration fees, sponsoring institutions, organizers, lecturers);
• Have a focus in the complex systems area or covering themes that relate to a complexity frame of reference;
• Provide evidence of the scientific excellence of lecturers and invited speakers;
• Providing options for online participation is encouraged.

The Complex Systems Society values diversity and is committed to ensuring that the events it supports are fair, unbiased, and respectful of the variety and richness that characterizes the Complex Systems community at large. Organisers are thus strongly encouraged to ensure that such attention is conveyed clearly by their event, for instance by making an effort to guarantee that invited speakers, committee members, tutors, and participants to their event represent a fair and balanced selection with regards to genders and cultural background.

Submission of Candidacies - Interested schools shall submit a request for the TSS program support providing the following information:

• Name and dates of the school
• Short document detailing the aims and program of the school (generally the information circulated with the school material or webpage)
• Amount of the registration fee and information on what it precisely covers
• Institution sponsoring the school
• List of organizers and list of speakers
• Web page address containing the information about the school
• Participation options for students (in-person, online only, hybrid)
• Modality of the funding requested (i.e. one of the two options described above)
• Expected number of registrants (range)

Selection procedure - The CSS Executive Committee is fully and exclusively endowed with the responsibility of assessing the eligibility of candidatures, examining and selecting the dossiers of the admitted candidatures, and selecting the candidatures receiving the TSS program support. The selected schools shall acknowledge the CSS sponsorship through the TSS program as appropriate on the web page and other advertising material (flyers, posters etc.). In particular, and in addition to the mandatory criteria mentioned above, selection of recipients will consider the following points:

• Schools in which at least one of the organizers is a member of the CSS will be favored;
• Schools that have never benefited from the program will be favored;
• Schools that allow also for hybrid or online participation modalities will be favored;
• The registration fee should not be excessive. In particular, the CSS reserves the possibility to attribute fellowships covering only part of the registration fees;
• Schools that show evidence of actively promoting equity, diversity and inclusion among organizers, speakers and participants will be favored. A special attention will be paid to schools that propose original initiatives to reduce barriers to participation.

Deadline for application - The application shall be sent to css@cssociety.org by December 15th, 2022 or 1 month before the event for events that that will take place in 2022. For any additional information please contact the CSS at css@cssociety.org.