We are delighted to announce the recipients of IAFOR grants and scholarships for The Vienna Conference on the Social Sciences (VCSS2026) to be held at the Austria Center Vienna, Austria, and online between November 13-17, 2026.
In total, we received 136 scholarship applications.
Launched in 2016, IAFOR’s grants and scholarships programme provides financial support to PhD students and early career academics, with the aim of helping them pursue research excellence and achieve their academic goals through interdisciplinary study and interaction.
Our warmest congratulations go to the following scholarship recipients.
IAFOR Scholarship Recipients
Dayana León, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador
Local Violence, Global Crime: Multilevel Governance and State Capacity in Ecuador’s Security Crisis
Ms Dayana León is a social sciences professional and journalist with over 15 years of experience in international cooperation, democratic governance, elections, and citizen security in Latin America. She has specialised training in democracy and security interventions in complex environments. She is currently a doctoral student and fellow in the PhD Program in Administration at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador. Her professional experience includes work with international donors and United Nations agencies, including USAID and AECID, as well as public-sector roles related to electoral processes and human rights. Her research interests focus on organised crime, elections, environmental governance, citizen security, and international cooperation. She is Social Media Editor of Protest (De Gruyter Brill) and a technical consultant at Creative Associates International.
Meera Gungea, Open University of Mauritius, Mauritius
Digital Literacy and Older Adults – Adoption and Usage Barriers
Maria Digi Anna Mance-Avila, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Translanguaging Practices of Multilingual Teachers and Students During Face-to-face and Online Mathematical Discourse: A Comparative Analysis
About IAFOR’s Grants and Scholarships
IAFOR is dedicated to helping young scholars achieve their research and academic goals, while also encouraging them to apply the principles of interdisciplinary study to their work. IAFOR offers travel and accommodation grants as well as full or partial scholarships covering conference registration fees to PhD students and early career academics who might not otherwise have the financial resources to be able to attend our academic conferences.
Awards are based on the appropriateness of the educational opportunity in relation to the applicant’s field of study, financial need, and contributions to their community and to IAFOR’s mission of interdisciplinarity. Scholarships will be awarded based on availability of funds from IAFOR and will vary with each conference. The Organising Committee of the relevant IAFOR conference will award scholarships to eligible applicants with exceptional abstracts accepted for presentation following the blind peer review process.
For further information on IAFOR grants and scholarships, please visit the Grants and Scholarships page of the IAFOR website.
2026 Grants and Scholarships
Grants and scholarships are still available for IAFOR conferences with open abstract submission deadlines. If you are eligible for an IAFOR grant or scholarship and would like to be considered, please submit your abstract to the conference you would like to attend and select the checkbox for the relevant award during the submission process.
