rstudio::conf(2020) Diversity and international scholarships

rstudio::conf(2020L) continues our tradition of diversity scholarships, and this year we’re increasing the program size to 44 recipients. As a result of thinking about our goals, this year we have two components to the program:

• 38 domestic diversity scholarships available to anyone living in the US or Canada who is a member of a group that is under-represented at rstudio::conf. At present, these groups would include women/minority genders, people of color, LGBTQ, elders/older adults, and those with disabilities.

• 6 international scholarships available to citizens/permanent residents of Mexico, as well as countries in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

In the long run, we hope that the rstudio::conf participants reflect the full diversity of the world around us. We believe in building on-ramps so that people from diverse backgrounds can learn R, build their knowledge, and then contribute back to the community. Through this program, we want to support scholars by covering the costs of conference registration (including workshops) and providing funds for travel and accommodation (up to $1000). At the conference, scholars will also have networking opportunities with past diversity scholarship recipients as well as with leaders in the field.

We also recognise that there are many parts of the world that do not offer easy access to R events. In addition to South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, which are mentioned above, Africa has an active and growing community of R users, but relatively few R events hosted within the region. Due to the persistent challenges African scholars have faced in obtaining visas to attend rstudio::conf in recent years, we are currently looking into alternative ways we might involve our African colleagues in this year’s conference, and will be sharing more about these plans soon. We will continue to re-evaluate the regions where our scholarships can have the greatest impact and will adjust this program as rstudio::conf grows. International scholars will receive complimentary conference and workshop registration, funds for travel and accommodation funding (up to $3000), and additional networking opportunities.

Scholarship applications will be evaluated on three main criteria:

• How will attending the conference impact you? What important problems will you be able to tackle that you couldn’t before?

• You will learn the most if you already have some experience with R, so show us what you’ve achieved so far (GitHub is the easiest way for us to assess your skills, if you’re new to Github, check out https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/ to get something informative up in under an hour).

• How will you share your knowledge with others? We can’t help everyone, so we’re particularly interested in helping those who will go back to their communities and spread the love. Show us how you’ve shared your skills and knowledge in the past, and tell us what you have planned for the future.

The scholarships are competitive, so make sure you highlight what makes you special. The application deadline is September 30, 2019.

Apply now!