THE GUIDELINES FOR ACCESSING THE CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE INTERVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:
A. The Conference
1. For any conference to be qualified for the participation of any Nigerian Teaching Staff under the TETFund conference attendance intervention;
i. It must be an Academic conference organized by Academic institutions, learned society, and/or recognized and reputable professional bodies. Predatory conferences being organized by third party Predatory Conference Organizers (PCOs) must not be recommended to the Fund;
ii. The registration fee for the conference must not exceed N100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) for conferences in Nigeria, and $500 (Five hundred US dollars) for conferences abroad;
iii. The duration of the conference must not exceed five (5) days.
2. Non-Teaching Staff on the other hand can attend Workshops/Conferences but for a period not exceeding 5 days.
3. Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff of beneficiary Institutions could attend group conferences or workshops as the case may be subject to the following:
i. Only a maximum of 7 (Seven) Teaching Staff of a department could attend a group conference (and not workshop) within a given intervention year.
4. ii. Non-Teaching Staff could attend group workshops organized by recognized Public Institutions.
5. NB
6. Beneficiary Institutions have a responsibility to draw the attention of their Staff to the prevalence of fraudulent conferences, scam conferences and predatory conferences organized by revenue-seeking companies and individuals to exploit researchers, especially from the third world.
7. B. The Process
8. All submissions from beneficiary institutions in respect of recommendations for the utilization of conference attendance intervention must be accompanied by the minutes of meeting of the relevant selection committee [TETFund Interventions Implementation Committee or Academic Board Committee or Committee of Deans & Directors].
9. In addition;
10. i. Submissions of recommendation for conference attendance should be received at the Fund at least two (2) months before the conference date;
1. Submissions should not be made in piece-meal. A maximum of three (3) submissions per allocation year should be made;
2. In addition to the hardcopy, all submissions must be accompanied with a soft copy in a memory stick (not CD-ROM) prepared in MS-Excel in accordance with the approved template. Advance soft copy could also be sent to es@tetfund.gov.ng and ast&ddept@tetfund.gov.ng ;
3. On completion of the vetting process, the Fund would communicate approval or otherwise to the beneficiary institution;
4. The beneficiary institutions should release approved funds to successful staff on time to attend the conferences;
11. vi. The beneficiary institution should submit two(2) copies of financial returns with supporting documents to show evidence of release of funds to staff. Such documents include: payment vouchers, approved memos, copy of certificate of attendance(if any), cheque(s) issued or e- payment schedule and bank statement amongst others. These would also form the basis for clearance in order to qualify to access subsequent allocations from the Fund.
vii. No expenditure should be incurred on behalf of the Fund without its approval.
vii. No expenditure should be incurred on behalf of the Fund without its approval.
C. Eligibility
To be eligible for sponsorship under the TETFund conference attendance intervention, a person;
i. Must be a Nigerian full-time Staff of a beneficiary Institution;
ii. Must apply to attend and participate in an Academic conference organized by Academic Institutions, learned society (regional, national or international one), and/or recognized professional bodies;
iii. Must have a paper accepted for presentation at the conference to be attended;
iv. Staff previously sponsored by the Fund to attend and present paper at any conference must present evidence of attendance and presentation [certificate of attendance, conference proceedings etc] before qualifying to be sponsored to attend another conference with TETFund support;
v. Any Staff that was previously sponsored by the Fund to attend and present a paper at an international conference must present evidence of publishing at least one
(1) article in any first quartile journal or two
(2) articles in any second quartile journals before qualifying to be sponsored to attend another international conference;
vi. Staff of beneficiary Institutions can only be sponsored to attend and present paper at an international conference once every two (2) years;
vii. Principal Officers of beneficiary Institutions can be recommended to attend local or international conference once in three (3) years. All subsisting requirements under this guideline apply;
viii. Submission for Conference attendance should indicate the present status and salary scale of attendees.
