[robocup-small] CALL FOR PROJECT PROPOSALS FOR PROMOTING ROBOCUP

[H. Levent Akin]

                   RoboCup Federation

         CALL FOR PROJECT PROPOSALS FOR PROMOTING ROBOCUP

          Deadline for proposals: *** February 3, 2013 ***

The RoboCup Federation is pleased to issue this call for proposals to fund
community driven efforts in 2013 to benefit our RoboCup Community (i.e. "from
RoboCuppers for RoboCuppers"). 

The funding will be in the range of US$1K to US$5K and the proposed activities
must be completed by the end of 2013. Multi-year initiatives will be supported
only in exceptional cases. 

We expect to assign a total of up to US$50K as the total to all the awards
selected.

The list of examples given below in (i) - (iii) is absolutely not intended to be
exhaustive. We strongly encourage you to consider innovative ways in which the
goals set out below can be achieved.

We prefer not to fund activities where alternative sources of funding are
readily available.

### Goals of funding and activities considered for funding ###

In providing this funding we aim at supporting three types of activities,
namely:
(i) to benefit the infrastructure of our RoboCup events,
(ii) to contribute to strongly RoboCup-focused research efforts based on
exchange of people,
(iii) to promote the education on specific RoboCup topics.


### Type of activities to be supported ###

(i) INFRASTRUCTURE

This includes developments of infrastructure (usually software or hardware) to
support significant advancements of the RoboCup leagues and of the RoboCup
community which are difficult to achieve otherwise.

Examples of proposals under this category are (but not limited to)
implementation of:

- Infrastructure for sharing open source code and other design best practices
- Game controllers
- Simulator extensions
- Middleware to support mixed teams
- Automated referees
- Automated game commentators, e.g., for Facebook and/or Twitter
- Defining and mining a RoboCup social network
- Creating a database of job positions
- Development of open software and/or hardware platforms

Requests to buy hardware for the competition infrastructure will not be accepted
within this call and would be handled outside the scope of this call.

(ii) EXCHANGE

This includes exchange of team members to promote interchange and integration of
research from different sources.

Examples of proposals under this category are (but not limited to):

- Student exchange among RoboCup Teams (not applicable to Junior students)
- Faculty exchange among RoboCup Teams
- RoboCup camp/workshop attendance
- Conference attendance for presentation of RoboCup papers

(iii) EDUCATION

This includes support of RoboCup events, excluding competitions.
Examples of proposals under this category are (but not limited to):
- RoboCup camps
- RoboCup workshops (standalone or in connection with other 	conferences or
events)
- Resources for the academic community and/or general public to help them
understand the purpose and scientific as well as technological achievements of
RoboCup

### Application procedure ###

The applicants must be either Team Leaders (from 2011-2012), Members of League
Technical Committees, Execs, or Trustees. For Junior leagues, only Members of
League Technical Committees, Execs or Trustees can submit applications for
activities of type (i) and (iii) only. Multiple, including collaborative,
applications for the same goal are possible (although not encouraged). In this
case, each application must be submitted separately, but it should clearly
indicate any relationship with other applications.

A proposal should address the following topics:
* What? Describe exactly the technical content of the proposal and what activity
funding is requested for. Also provide any contextual information that you
think is relevant. Follow-up proposals of previously funded initiatives should
clearly explain the new, additional benefits.

* How Much? A budget, in US$, which:
 clearly states the amount requested;
 provides details of the use of requested funds.

* Why? Statement of the objectives of the activity and brief justification for
the requested funding; note that priority will be given to activities for which
no alternative funds are available.
* Who? Describe who will benefit from the proposed activity and the expected
impact on the RoboCup Community and how the expected impact can be evaluated.
* When? Dates of the proposed activity, and date by which funding would be
needed.
* Where? Location of the proposed activity.
* Contact details. Name, affiliation, contact details for the responsible party
(postal address, email, telephone number, fax), web address of event if
available.

Proposals should under no circumstances exceed more than two pages in total.

Each application must include curriculum vitae of the applicant (including a
publication list) as an appendix of up to two more pages.

The proposals should be submitted in PDF via the EasyChair web review system at
the following URL:
 https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ppprobocup2013

### Evaluation of the proposals ###

The proposal will be evaluated by a specific committee of the Trustees of the
RoboCup Federation according to the following criteria:

- Quality of the proposal (technical content and presentation)
- Likely level of impact on for the RoboCup Community
- Scientific merit of the applicant
- Adequacy of resources and budget, cost effectiveness/value for money.

In case of need, the committee may ask for proposal evaluators from within or
external to our community. The outcome of the evaluation will be communicated
via email to the address specified in the application by *** March 24, 2013
***.

The decision of the committee with respect to funding decisions is final, and we
will not enter into any correspondence with respect to unsuccessful proposals.


### Award of the support ###

Given the diversity of our community, with different financial constraints for
each country and institution, we envision providing the financial support in
one of three forms:

a) check reimbursement,
b) voucher for registration fees at RoboCup,
c) cash reimbursement at the RoboCup event.

The timing for awarding of the support will be set as a function of the needs of
the activity. In general, it will be based on the completion of the activity,
the presentation of a summary report, and original receipts, as applicable.

Successful proposals are expected to deliver a brief and concise final report
and also present a poster at the RoboCup 2013 Symposium.


-- 
===================================================================
H.Levent Akin                         []  To acquire knowledge and
Dean                                  []  communicate it to others
Faculty of Engineering                []  has been the ambition,
Bogazici University                   []  pleasure, and business of
34342 Bebek-Istanbul                  []  my life.
TURKEY                                []  -William Harvey
                                      []
Phone: +90 (212) 359 6401             []
Fax:   +90 (212) 265 8488             []
E-Mail:akin at boun.edu.tr               []
URL:http://www.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/~akin []