The ISSMGE Foundation

The ISSMGE Foundation

OBJECTIVE
The concept of the ISSMGE Foundation dates back to September 2009, when Professor Jean-Louis Briaud, the newly-elected President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) in his acceptance speech to the ISSMGE Council Meeting (Alexandria, Egypt), introduced his vision of a foundation that would enable geotechnical engineers from around the world to make better use of resources that may otherwise be inaccessible to them. These resources would include participation in conferences, attending knowledge development courses, etc., with a view to enhancing the awardees own education and professional formation and, as a result, their contribution to society at large. In short, and as stated in the Foundation constitution, its objective is “the advancement of education and educational training in the field of geotechnical engineering and its applications for the public benefit”.
In September 2013, The ISSMGE Foundation achieved charitable status and was entered onto the Register of Charities of the Charity Commission of England and Wales, with the Registered Charity Number 1153795.

ACTIVITIES

The purpose of the Foundation is to award grants to applicants who fulfil the requirements as specified below.

PROCEDURE FOR AWARDING GRANTS
The financial assistance is in the form of a bursary which the successful applicant can use to pay registration costs, travel and/or accommodation expenses. Applicants are strongly encouraged to become members of their national geotechnical societies, and subsequently of the ISSMGE.
The following procedure has been developed to assess applications for ISSMGE Foundation bursaries:
a. Applications can be submitted four times yearly (at 3-month intervals) on a standard form, to the Secretary General of ISSMGE;

b. These applications are sent to the trustees (Professor Jean-Louis Briaud, Professor Michael Davies, and Professor Neil Taylor);
c. The trustees assess the applications of the basis of the following criteria:
i. Demonstration of need;
ii. Quality of the activity;
iii. Cost-sharing;
iv. Potential impact of the activity on the career progress of the individual and of his or her Member Society.
d. Decisions are made and communicated normally within three weeks following the application round.
e. After the successful applicant has completed his/her nominated activity, they provide a written report to the Trustees on the benefits that they and their Society have gained from the award of the bursary.
The criteria and procedure described above were established in February 2014, though may be modified when considered necessary.

To date (June 2017), there have been a total of 138 applicants with 111 awards approved at a success rate of 80%. Of these, 81 bursaries (in total £64,369) have been paid with a further 30 due when the applicants have completed their activities. Some of this funding took place in the early days through the ISSMGE, prior to the Foundation achieving charitable status.
A full list of awardees is attached, and their reports are available to read on the ISSMGE website at: http://www.issmge.org/en/issmge-foundation/recipients-reports.

To SUPPORT the ISSMGE Foundation, please follow the link for “information for Donors” on:
http://www.issmge.org/issmge-foundation/donors-list
Alternatively, please contact the ISSMGE Secretary General at:
secretary.general@issmge.org

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