Activity Based Funding Guidelines

January

September

November

Call for proposals

Application deadline

Proposal Reviews

Announce Decision

An ACM India Professional and Student Engagement Initiative

March-April 2026 Cycle

The following activities will be supported by the ACM India Activity Based Funding initiative for the March-April 2026 cycle. The details have been emailed to each recipient

Cycle	Chapter Name	Activity Name	Funding value
Mar-Apr 2026	Poornima College of Engineering, Jaipur ACM Student Chapter	TECHNO TARANG- A NATIONAL LEVEL HACKATHON	30000
	MITB ACM Student Chapter	HackBricks	20000
	Ramaiah Institute of Technology ACM Student Chapter	Code2Create Challenge – A Two-Round Applied Algorithm Competition	25000
	GSFC University ACM Student Chapter	Dev-a-Thon	20000
	BV College of Engineering ACM-W Student Chapter	Visualytics Expo	15000
	MBU ACM Student Chapter	Syetm Design Bootcamp	25000
	Dayananda Sagar University ACM Student Chapter	Techflix Season 2 - La Casa De Code 24 hrs national level hackathon	30000
	Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College ACM Student Chapter	FutureForge: Academia–Industry Innovation Summit	15000
	SSN ACM-W Student Chapter	CSPathshala Initiative	15000
	DSATM ACM Student Chapter	Cypher Quest 2k26	20000
	JIS University ACM Student Chapter	INAUGURATION OF CHAPTER AND TECHQUIZ	12000
	Coimbatore ACM Chapter	Think Like a Hacker – Ethical Hacking Awareness Day	15000
	Pune ACM-W Chapter	Raise Your Glass Ceiling – Talks by Women Leaders followed by a Panel Discussion	18000
	DIET ACM Student Chapter	Seminar on Design Thinking & Intellectual Property Rights Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)	15000
	St. Joseph's ACM Student Chapter	ITERYX '26 - An Inter-College Software Hackathon	20000
	SNU ACM-W Student Chapter	Tech for Good -NGO Digital Literacy Drive	15000
	BBDITM ACM Student Chapter	Hardware Security and IP Core Protection	10000

Important dates:

Apply online using the ACM India Activity Support Application form.

The Activity Based Funding initiative of ACM India is geared towards partial financial support of activities of its student and professional chapters in India. Generally, any activity that adds clear value to ACM members, and/or the student chapter, the professional chapter, ACM India and/or the broader computing community, would be considered for funding. Typical activities include hosting talks, hackathons, mini workshops, etc. Funding is usually limited to one activity per chapter per year, and may only partially cover the costs of the activity. Activity funding may also be combined with funding through the Eminent Speaker Program (ESP) and any support offered by the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee of ACM India. Applications for activity funding are open throughout the year and reviewed every 2 months. So chapters should plan their activities well in advance and apply for such funding.

Detailed guidelines on the nature of the support and the process for application and decision making are given below.

Past Approvals

Funding Rules

Typically a chapter will be funded once per year. However, a proposal rejected in one review of a year can be improved and resubmitted.
Proposals that are approved for funding will be reimbursed the approved costs on completion of the event and submission of relevant receipts and documentation.
Large conferences follow a separate approval process handled by ACM HQ and are not covered under this scheme.
Chapters should target an attendance of at least 50, composed mostly of ACM members (professional / student), and non ACM members.
Chapters are encouraged to invite one speaker from the Eminent Speaker Program of ACM India to enhance the impact of the event. The ESP funding is over and above this activity funding, and is not a part of the activity budget.
Proposals should be endorsed by (a) 20 ACM Members (Please upload a spreadsheet with first name, last name, email and ACM membership number of all the endorsing members), or (b) Two or more ACM Chapters (besides the one organizing it) in good standing, or (c) Three or more academic or industrial institutions. These endorsements should indicate that they will attend the event and support it.
Funding will not cover the costs of renting a facility or infrastructure. Organizers should find a host ready to provide complimentary space and infrastructure.

Selection criteria for activity approval

Eligibility: The Chapter has to be Active and in good standing to apply for ABF.
A maximum of Rs.50,000 will be allocated per event (often only Rs.25,000 for most events).
A Chapter may only apply once in a year (and possibly a second time in the second half of the year, if additional ABF funds are available).
The activity start date must be after the date of notification for the ABF cycle under which this proposal is submitted, preferable 2 weeks or more after the deadline. Proposals whose start date falls before the notification deadline will be rejected without review.
Only the full chapter name as approved by ACM when your chapter was formed must be used. Any other name, including short forms, are not allowed. Applications with incorrect names will be rejected without review.
Only the following categories of support are as below
- Food Expenses for Attendees
- Travel Support for Outstation Speaker
- Local Accommodation Support for Outstation Speaker
- Honorarium for Speaker
- Prizes for Winning Teams

Sample list of activities

An activity must typically be a day long (about 6-8 hours) and host about 50 attendees. Here are some examples.

Talk/Seminar: Arrange a day long series of talks by high level experts on locally relevant or contemporary technical issues. The talk can also include an ESP speaker.
Regional Quiz/Programming contest/Hackathons/Bootcamps or similar activities that keep the fun and learning element of Computing alive. This should benefit both ACM members and the broader computing community.
Workshops/Tutorials/Presentations/Panel discussions/Mentorship sessions etc.

Funding amount

The support from ACM India for each activity funding will be limited to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 (Rs.Fifty Thousand only) per activity. The costs will be reimbursed based on actual and approved expenses after the completion of the event.

Submission of Activity Based Funding Proposals

Proposals can be submitted throughout the year. They will be reviewed every two months. Chapters are encouraged to apply well in advance, but not earlier than 6 months prior to the event.

Proposal to include:

Clear objective
Deliverables
Activity and publicity plan
Total Budget
Support required from ACM India out of the total budget.
Commencement and End dates

Apply online using the ACM India Activity Support Application form.

The review results will be announced as indicated on the ACM India Activity Based Funding Guidelines.

Funded Project Closure

A report of the activity and good quality pictures should be uploaded here. Please name the report file as: abf-<YOUR-INSTITUTION>-<YEAR>.pdf, and similarly for the pictures.
The activity should be reported on the ACM India Chapter Portal.
All chapters are encouraged to video-record key talks or discussions and make them available to the community at large.
ACM authorities will review the above and share the claims form upon approval.
Using the claims form, the scanned receipts for expenses being claimed should be submitted for reimbursement.
For premature closure of the project, permission must be sought from the evaluation committee, and a closure report must be submitted.

The above should be completed within fifteen days after the end date of the activity.

Funding will be released within two to three weeks of receiving the claim complete in all respects.

For any further information regarding the funding, please write to: [email protected].