2009 - Conference Grants

The HEDW Forum offers two grants to cover the costs of conference attendance in memory of Cathy Lester, one of its founding members. The grants are aimed at institutions with limited data warehousing budgets that could add to the conference and/or benefit from attending. One attendance grant and one speakers grant are made annually.

In order to qualify for either of these grants, you must submit a proposal by February 20, 2009 as outlined below.

Cathy Lester Attendance Grant. The goal of this grant is to provide access to information and peers for the benefit of institutions in the early to middle stages of implementing a warehousing/business intelligence solution on a limited budget. The HEDW would like the recipient institution to attend the conference and take that knowledge gained back to their campus and apply it. Within four months of the conference, the recipient is responsible for writing a short white paper for distribution to the HEDW membership on the institution's successes and lessons learned and the impact conference attendance had on their data warehousing/business intelligence program.

Cathy Lester Speakers Grant. The goal of this grant is to provide an opportunity for institutions that have implemented a data warehouse/business intelligence program in a creative fashion to share with their peers. The HEDW Forum would like these institutions to present their story so other institutions can benefit from their successes and lessons learned. This grant is open to members who have already submitted a proposal and to those who have not.

Covered Expenses. Each grant pays the conference registration fee, travel costs up to $800, and up to three nights of hotel accommodation. The hotel cost is paid directly by HEDW. Grant recipients are responsible for paying their travel expenses and submitting a properly documented reimbursement request to the treasurer of HEDW. Pre-conference training sessions and meals outside the conference are not covered.

Application Process. Applicants submit the following information to the Grants Coordinator at t.vijay@mail.utexas.edu by February 20, 2009. A review committee of HEDW Forum board members will select the grant recipients by March 6, 2009. Please do not attempt to register for the conference before you are notified of the outcome of your application. The registration procedure requires payment.

1. Grant being applied for
2. Name and contact information
3. Institution
4. Position in institution
5. Number of current and/or planned users of data warehousing/business intelligence solution services
6. Number of students in attendance at your institution
7. Brief description of the goals of your warehousing/business intelligence project and where in the development lifecycle it currently sits
8. Brief summary why you feel the grant should be awarded to your institution
9a. For the attendance grant: what you hope to gain from attending the conference
9b. For the speaker's grant: why you feel conference participants will benefit from hearing your story