CSP - International Society for Bayesian Analysis 2016 World Meeting
Abstract
Our main goal is to seek travel support for young researchers attending the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) World Meeting taking place at Sardinia (Italy) on June 13-17, 2016. ISBA is the largest society of researchers and practitioners working on Bayesian statistical methods, with over 1,000 members and a diverse international membership. The ISBA World meeting continues a 30-year tradition of increasingly popular Bayesian meetings (from 50 attendees at the first Valencia International Meeting on Bayesian statistics to 420 at the latest 2012 meeting), and is the largest conference focusing on advances in Bayesian data analysis and experimental design. The meeting covers methodological advances to tackle rising data analysis challenges (e.g. theory for highdimensional inference, scalability of computations), and it has also a strong focus on applications to various fields (e.g. biological, environmental and climatological sciences, econometrics, machine learning). These challenges and application areas are important to the Naval research enterprise. The ISBA World meeting is held bi-annually and its location rotates to facilitate global participation and exchange of knowledge, the latest editions being held at Cancun (Mexico), Kyoto (Japan), Benidorm (Spain) and Hamilton Island (Australia), a strategy complemented by numerous additional international meetings regularly organized by the various ISBA sections. As a result ISBA meetings have enjoyed a strong attendance from across the world, including developing countries and young researchers. The current proposal seeks to facilitate the participation of the latter, which is essential for the field s future. The meeting specifically includes foundational lectures and short courses to train young researchers, PhD thesis awards, sessions organized by the junior ISBA section, four talks specifically allocated to PhD students, poster sessions, video competitions and networking events. The meeting also offers the opportunity to submit the work for publication in a special edition of Bayesian analysis, the society s open-access peer-reviewed journal. ISBA has two permanent travel awards for a limited number of PhD students or young researchers (ISBA Lifetime Members Junior Researcher Award, Pilar Iglesias Travel Award for developing countries). Akin to earlier successful bids to ONR funding, this grant would be invaluable in extending travel support to a larger set of non USA-based researchers, and hence ensuring a continued international presence at the meeting. Specifically, the grant would partially fund 20 students, where based on earlier editions it is expected that roughly 10 would be from the European Union, nearby African and middle eastern countries, and 10 from Latin America, Asia, Australia or Africa. The meeting is designed to be budget-neutral and if needed ISBA will cover any deficits with its core funds. If this proposal is successful ISBA will announce a public call for travel award applications, which will be evaluated by four members of the Scientific Committee. The evaluation criteria have been rigorously defined to ensure that awards are based on scientific merit, and specific rules have been created to ensure a good representation of women and minority applicants. Travel reimbursements will be managed by its Principal Investigator (David Rossell) and support staff at the University of Warwick (United Kingdom).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 10, 2016
- Source ID
- N629091612048
Entities
People
- David Rossell
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Warwick