Aug182026
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Finding Travel Support to Attend SC26

The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (also known as “Supercomputing” or “SC”) takes place in November each year. This is one of the premier conferences for HPC and a great opportunity for the community to come together. For folks early in their careers, going to SC for the first time can be a career-defining experience.

Such a large conference comes with some steep costs, including registration fees, travel, and hotel accommodations for the week-long event. This can make attendance beyond the reach for those at the start of their HPC careers. This post catalogs several organizations which provide funding and travel support opportunities for individuals to attend SC26.

WHPC Rising Stars

Women in HPC (WHPC) has a long history of supporting early career attendees: financially, through mentoring, and opportunities to share their technical work. This tradition will continue at the WHPC @ SC26 workshop, where a cohort of Rising Stars will be recognized for their research contributions. A few of the selected rising stars will also receive travel support.

  • More details in the call for applications: https://womeninhpc.org/events/sc-2026-workshop
  • Deadline: August 21, 2026
  • Contact: info@womeninhpc.org

NHR|WHPC Chapter in Germany

The NHR|WHPC chapter in Germany is offering five travel grants (each worth EUR 3,000) to enable women and individuals from underrepresented groups in Germany to attend the SC26 Conference. Applicants must be affiliated with a German university or research center. The grant covers the conference registration fee, airfare, visa application costs, accommodation, and transportation to the conference.

  • Application and details: https://travelgrants.nhr-verein.de
  • Deadline: August 25, 2026
  • Contact: ayesha.afazla@fau.de.

UK CAKE

WHPC is a partner of the Computational Abilities Knowledge Exchange(CAKE) project, which supports collaboration and community building across the UK’s Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) programme and wider large-scale computing landscape. CAKE provides funding to support the UK community to build new collaborations and strengthen existing ones through flexible funding for travel, subsistence for international placements and visits.

  • Details: https://www.cake.ac.uk/about/placements/
  • Deadline: rolling
  • Contact: Eleanor Broadway (e.broadway@epcc.ed.ac.uk)

ACM SIGHPC

ACM SIGHPC is a professional society devoted exclusively to the needs of students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners in high performance computing. SIGHPC’s mission is to help spread the use of HPC, help raise the standards of the profession, and help ensure a rich and rewarding career for people involved in the field. SIGHPC has two opportunities for SC travel support, coving both graduate students and early career professionals.

SC Travel Grant

  • Details: https://www.sighpc.org/opportunities/travel-grants#h.b95gqcwuvh60
  • Deadline: August 31, 2026.

SIGHPC Ewing “Rusty” Lusk Travel Scholarship

  • Details: https://www.sighpc.org/opportunities/rusty-lusk-travel-scholarship
  • Deadline: September 30, 2026

ACM-W

ACM-W provides support for undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and related programs to attend computer science research conferences. The program welcomes applicants who are interested in advancing the participation and visibility of women in computing research communities. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and are not SC-specific.

  • Details: https://women.acm.org/scholarships/
  • Deadline: rolling

Thinking ahead to SC27

If you don’t make it to SC26, there is always next year. There are many ways to get involved or recognized for your technical contributions, many of which include travel support to SC.

SC Student Volunteers

SC student volunteers receive full travel support to attend the conference. Applications are due early March.

  • Details: https://sc26.supercomputing.org/students/student-volunteers/

SIGHPC Computational & Data Science fellowships

ACM SIGHPC has created the Computational and Data Science Fellowships, a continuation of the program started with Intel (see below) to increase the diversity of students pursuing graduate degrees in data science and computational science. Specifically targeted at women or students from racial/ethnic backgrounds that have not traditionally participated in the computing field, the program is open to students pursuing degrees at institutions anywhere in the world.

  • Details: https://www.sighpc.org/opportunities/fellowships

George Micheal Memorial Fellowship

These fellowships honor exceptional PhD students throughout the world whose research focus areas are in high performance computing, networking, storage, and large-scale data analysis. Fellowship recipients are selected each year based on overall potential for research excellence, the degree to which technical interests align with those of the HPC community, academic progress to date, recommendations by their advisor and others, and a demonstration of current and anticipated use of HPC resources.

  • Details: https://awards.acm.org/hpc-fellows