Who should attend

Eligible research students from the Asia-Pacific region will apply for 100 places,30 of which will be fully-funded. Students are defined here as early-stage researchers, i.e., final year undergraduate, MSc, MPhil or PhD. We also welcome applicants who are not currently enrolled in a research degree but are working at a similar level in a conservation organisation. Participants will be chosen based on merit and need, plus equity issues such as country and demographics.

Although this conference was created to focus on students from Asia-Pacific countries, self-funded participants from other countries may also apply. We encourage applications from students pursuing studies within the field of conservation science, including (but not limited to) ecology, environmental science, resource management, geography, economics, and social sciences. Attendance will be capped at 100 students.

The aim is to foster a friendly and productive environment that will help develop research skills and forge lasting professional relationships in on of the most biologically and culturally diverse regions in the world.

How to apply

You need to complete an online application form, telling us why you want to attend, and giving details of your presentation. You can apply to give a talk or a poster.Those people who are not selected for one of the limited talking spots will give a poster on the same topic. There are no strict rules about the kind of talks or posters that the organising committee selects for the conference, but they should always be about research you did yourself, wholly or in part. For your presentation to stand the best chance of being chosen, give special attention on your application form to the four sections about the main questions addressed by your work, its methods, the most important findings and their relevance to conservation. 

In the online application form, you will also need to specify which workshops you would like to attend. Please note that places in each workshop are limited, and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Applications to attend closed on the 14th of September 2012.

If you are from a developing country, the application form is also where you can apply for a scholarship to cover the cost of your conference, workshop and field trip attendance. Please note that we are only able to help a small number of applicants and cannot help those already based and settled in any developed country including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Western Europe or North America, even if there on a scholarship. Please check the scholarship eligibility details before applying to see whether you qualify. We will consider applicants only from Lower Income (LIC), Lower Middle Income (LMC) and Upper Middle Income (UMC) countries for scholarships.

Our response

All conference, talk, poster and scholarship places are selected by the organising committee. You should be informed whether your application has been accepted or not in early October. Do not be too disappointed if you are unsuccessful this time: competition is intense. Some talks may be placed on a reserve list, which means that they are not accepted immediately but they may be included later if circumstances change. Often, you will be encouraged to present your findings as a poster if it turns out not to be possible to allocate you a time slot for a talk.

Please read the Important Dates page for further important information about our planning timetable.