+ funding & financial support

young snow professional awards

Continuing the excellent initiative, started in 2018 at the Innsbruck ISSW, to support and encourage young practitioners and researchers we plan to offer up to five Young Snow Professional (YSP) Awards. These YSP Awards will waive the conference registration fees for selected up-and-coming professionals in the early stages of their careers (< 30 years old). We ask that the application and selection process be managed by the individual avalanche associations (e.g. Canadian Avalanche Association, Austrian Association for Snow and Avalanches, American Avalanche Association).

For example, the association:

  • Designs their application criteria.

  • Accepts and evaluates applications.

  • Selects an award winner.

  • Provides mentorship for preparation of

    the abstract, paper, and presentation.

Please reach out to the Technical Committee at technical.committee@issw2026.com if your association is interested in supporting a young snow professional in your membership. We will only be able to offer up to five awards, so we will use a first-come-first serve process to select interested associations.

Avalanche Industry Organizations:

• Avalanche Canada Foundation: ISSW-specific and other grants to support academic research;

• American Avalanche Association (A3): various grants for American citizens and A3 members;

• AIARE (USA) list of Other Scholarships (some of which may be eligible).

Gender-Based Funding:

• Avalanche Divas: supports female-identifying applicants;

• Blizzard Tecnica W2W Hilaree Nelson Education Scholarship: supports women and non-binary identifying individuals in their pursuit to further their education and knowledge in snowsports.

DEI-Related Funding:

• Arcteryx No Wasted Days Community Grant: open to local, grassroots individuals and organizations actively working to increase access for people who have traditionally been excluded from the outdoors. To support this work Arc’teryx will provide grants of up to 5,000 AUD, CAD, GBP, or USD, dependent on location.

Funding for Organizations and Charities:

• Columbia Valley Community Foundation: offers funding to nonprofits for specific programming.

• Reeno Foundation (based in Vermont, USA): offers funding for professional development or group experiences based in outdoor recreation/education/wilderness experiences (could potentially cover travel expenses or group visits on the public day).