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Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
Appendix 12: Report on the ISSMGE Foundation
Report de la fondation ISSMGE
H.G. Poulos
Chair, MPAC
1
PURPOSE OF THE FOUNDATION
The Foundation of the International Society for Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) was
created to provide financial help to geotechnical engineers
throughout the world who wish to further their geotechnical
engineering knowledge and enhance their practice through
various activities which they could not otherwise afford.
These activities include attending conferences, participating
in continuing education events, purchasing geotechnical
reference books and manuals. The financial assistance is in
the form of a “bursary” which the successful applicant can
use to pay registration costs, and travel and accommodation
expenses.
Only applications from current members of ISSMGE are
considered.
2
FOUNDATION FUNDING
Funding for the ISSMGE Foundation will be generated
from companies and individuals who care about the well-
being of less fortunate geotechnical engineers in the world.
The funding levels are as follows:
Diamond: $50,000 and above
Platinum: $25,000 to $49,999
Gold: $10,000 to $24,999
Silver: $1000 to $9,999
Bronze: $0 to $999
The names of the donors are recognized with the
corresponding levels on the ISSMGE web site under the
page dedicated to the ISSMGE Foundation, in the
ISSMGE Bulletin on the page dedicated to the ISSMGE
Foundation. They will also be recognised at future
International Conferences on Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering.
To date, a total of US$ 161,336 has been contributed
by 21 organizations and individuals. Donor details are
listed at the end of this report.
3
PROCEDURE FOR AWARDING BURSARIES
The following procedure has been developed to assess
applications for ISSMGE Foundation bursaries:
a.
Applications can be submitted four times yearly (at
3-month intervals) on a standard form, to the
Secretary General of ISSMGE;
b.
These applications are sent to a sub-committee of
the ISSMGE Membership, Practitioner, and
Academicians Committee (MPAC);
c.
The sub-committee will assess the applications of the
basis of the following criteria:
i.
Demonstration of need;
ii.
Quality of the activity;
iii.
Cost-sharing;
iv.
Potential impact of the activity on the career
progress of the individual and of his or her Member
Society.
d.
Decisions are made and communicated within the two
months following the application round.
e.
After the successful applicant has completed
his/her nominated activity, they provide a written
report to the Chair of MPAC stating the benefits
that they and their Society have gained from the
award of the bursary.
The sub-committee for the period up to September
2013 is as follows:
Professor Harry Poulos (MPAC Chair)
Dr. Luiz Guilherme de Mello
Dr. Marcellin Kana.
4
AWARDS TO DATE
To date, there have been a total of 42 applicants, and 34
bursaries, totalling US$42400, have been awarded, a success
rate of just over 80%.
The details of the grants are set out in Table 1below.
The reports of the awardees that have attended
conferences up to and including 2011 have appeared in
previous issues of the ISSMGE Bulletin, starting with
Volume 4, Issue 4, December 2010.
5
IMPACT OF THE FOUNDATION
It has become very clear that the financial assistance
provided by the ISSMGE Foundation has started to have a
very positive impact on the individuals receiving the
bursaries and also on their Member Societies. In particular,
two awards of the awards have influenced the formation of a
new Member Society, Cuba.
As recognition of the awards becomes more widespread,
we are seeing an acceleration in the rate of applications,
especially for the forthcoming 18 th International
Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering, and the associated International Young
Engineers Geotechnical Conference, both in Paris.
Thus, the ISSMGE Foundation is already fulfilling its
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