Bursaries

The SVRI Forum bursary fund brings researchers, practitioners and activists based in low- and middle-income countries into the room when they would otherwise be unable to attend. That purpose has not changed for 2026.

What changed this year is the money available to us. Bursary funding for Forum 2026 fell well short of the need, and well short of what we have been able to offer at previous Forums.

This year, we could not run an open call. In earlier years we invited applications from presenters and from participants who were not on the programme. This year we did not have the funds to make that a meaningful exercise. We worked instead from the requests for support recorded at the point of abstract acceptance.

We had over 100 people on the accepted programme that told us they needed financial support to travel to Bangkok. We were able to support 43 (29 full and 14 partial).

Allocation was carried out by members of the SVRI Forum 2026 Organising Committee and guided by a set of considerations that we weighed together rather than in order of rank.

• The first was regional balance. We looked at where presenters on the accepted programme are based, so that the sessions reflect the range of contexts this field works in and no region is left without a voice.
• The second was presentation format. We wanted support to reach colleagues presenting orals, four-minute presentations and posters, rather than concentrating it in oral presentations alone.
• The third was the make-up of panels. A panel that loses several of its members to a funding gap stops being the session that was accepted, so we considered panels as units and not only as individuals.
• The fourth was cost. We weighed what it would cost to bring each person to Bangkok against the number of people the fund could reach in total, with the aim of supporting as many colleagues as the funds allowed.

We are grateful to the donors who made the bursaries we could award possible.

Their contributions are the reason a number of our colleagues will be with us in Bangkok in October.

The need has not gone away. Many people on the 2026 programme are still looking for the means to attend. If you or your organisation is able to contribute to the bursary fund, we would like to hear from you, and any further funds will be allocated against the same considerations set out here.

Please contact us at forums@svri.org

• Women’s Fund Asia: Travel Grant.