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The conference and workshop organisation programme (CWOP) allowed PASCAL researchers to apply for partial funding for conferences and workshops. Individual PASCAL researchers could request funding by filling in a web form in which they had to answer a number of questions and give a preliminary budget. Questions included 'how does the proposed conference/workshop help accomplish the general objectives of PASCAL', 'are there any invited speakers that are not PASCAL members; if so, provide a list'; and so on. It was decided to have a continuously open call. Proposals that requested funding of more than EU 2500 were sent to two referees, usually PASCAL members from sites not involved in the proposal. The programme manager then made the final decision based on the referees' recommendations.
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Proposals requesting less than this amount were decided upon directly by the programme manager, without additional recommendations. The whole process was automated - the programme manager could handle appointments of referees and decisions via the web portal. The main decision criterion was usefulness of the proposed activity for PASCAL. A distinction was made between “core" and “non-core" workshops. Core workshops had to involve several PASCAL sites in the organisation, and concerning a topic central to the PASCAL objectives. They were videoed, the videos then being made available on the web portal. The maximum amount of funding for core workshops was 9000 EU. For non-core workshops the requirements were much less stringent, but they could only be funded up to a maximum of 2500 EU. Such workshops were required to have a topic related to, but not necessarily central to, the PASCAL objectives. The decision could either be `fund the full amount requested', `fund by a smaller specified amount' or `reject'. In practice, only one workshop was ever fully rejected. It happened regularly, however, that a proposal was sent back to the applicant with the note 'we can only accept this proposal if you enhance the usefulness of your workshop to PASCAL'. In several cases this led to the inclusion of additional PASCAL researchers or speakers in the proposed workshop. |
