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ICANN Fellowship Terms and Conditions

ICANN Fellowship Program


Superseded by https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/terms-conditions-2012-02-25-en

10 September 2015

  1. Application Process

    The only way to apply for an ICANN Fellowship is through the online application system. All information requested in the application must be written in English and embedded in the online form. Once you start the online application, you will have until the application round closes to complete the entire form. You must re-apply for each ICANN meeting fellowship round.

    Please take careful note of the application closing dates listed at http://icann.org/en/fellowships/. Active but incomplete applications will NOT be considered once the system is closed.

    An independent selection committee reviews eligible applications. The committee ranks each application according to the ICANN Fellowship selection criteria. Additional weight is given to eligible candidates who meet the minimum requirements of the program, and live in the region where the ICANN meeting is being held for that fellowship round. The Fellowship Program supports approximately 50 participants at each of the ICANN Public meetings A and C.

    All successful candidates are announced on the ICANN website, approximately 8 weeks after the online application closes; that is the only communication that all applicants will see. Actual dates for all Fellowship postings are located on the Fellowship web page. Successful candidates also receive a follow-up email and confirmation letter at the time of posting, which must be returned within a week of receipt declaring that they accept the fellowship. If a candidate does not accept the fellowship, an already established list of alternates will be used to fill the vacated position.

    ICANN Fellowship follows a 3x participation guideline, acknowledging that first time Fellows are just beginning to understand the ICANN Multistakeholder model and the work of ICANN; second and third time Fellows take the opportunity to further build on their initial experience with the end goal of becoming engaged and participatory in one of the ICANN communities.

    Beginning with the ICANN 53 application process, alumni of the Fellowship program, including those who have already used their 3x fellowships, may opt to apply as a Newcomer Coach. This Coach role does not count as a second or third fellowship; it is a separate option. If a Coach applicant is not selected to perform that role, he/she may or may not be selected as a fellowship participant depending on the established terms and criteria for selection by the Fellowship committee and the status of other applicants.

    Selection criteria for a Newcomer Coach includes, but is not limited to: overall knowledge of ICANN mission and Multistakeholder model; feedback from ICANN Global Stakeholder Engagement Regional Team Member(s) and/or ICANN community leaders; previous experiences in the fellowship program that show aptitude for mentorship role; current role in ICANN if applicable; rationale for particular meeting attendance and overall awareness of IG related work in Internet ecosystem.

  2. National laws and legislation

    During the travel covered under ICANN Fellowships, it is the Fellow's responsibility to comply with all local laws and legislation of the country or countries to which he or she will travel (including but not limited to laws pertaining to immigration, taxation, customs, employment and foreign exchange control).

    It is the Fellow's responsibility to comply with all regulations (including those dealing with visas and required vaccinations) of any country visited.

    ICANN is not responsible for obtaining visas for Fellows and but MAY help with communications regarding the visas, including a Form invitation letter to the ICANN meeting for which the Fellow has been granted a Fellowship.

    ICANN will not entertain any claim for work permits or any other costs relating to compliance with the national legislation of any country in the world from a fellow or any third party.

    ICANN is a California non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the United States and must therefore comply with all of the laws and regulations of California and the United States.

  3. Travel and Other Support Once Selected

    Travel will be booked by ICANN via its travel service provider. ICANN will not purchase any travel tickets for a Fellowship recipient unless and until the Fellow has all the necessary travel documents, including visas and in some cases transit visas in their possession and has provided ICANN with pdf copies of such documents.

    Fellows are not entitled to create their own travel itinerary, nor are they entitled to reroute or extend the itinerary created by ICANN's travel service provider unless agreed upon by the ICANN Constituency Travel team and executed by the ICANN travel service provider.

    ICANN shall not be liable for any loss or expenses (including airfares) of the applicant for travel delays incurred by the applicant as a result of inaccurate information provided by the applicant, delays in submitting the appropriate forms to the relevant authorities or refusals of host or transit country authorities to grant a visa to the applicant.

    For ICANN meetings, a stipend not to exceed US $500.00 will be provided to offset reasonable individual expenses (such as meals, ground transport, related expenses, etc.). One half of the stipend will be provided to each participating fellow at the ICANN meeting; the second half of the stipend will be provided via wire transfer by ICANN upon successful completion of the ICANN Fellowship.

    ICANN will defer costs incurred by Fellows to obtain a visa, up to the USD 200.00 allowed in the ICANN Constituency Travel Guidelines.

    ICANN will only cover the cost of a hotel room directly using an ICANN meeting partner hotel as established by ICANN's travel service provider. Any and all hotel surcharges (e.g. telephone calls, room service, laundry, movies) are the responsibility of the Fellow. The hotel may request a credit card OR cash deposit from the Fellow to guarantee these expenses.

  4. Required Travel Documents

    Each Selected Fellow must be holding a valid passport prior to ICANN booking any travel (airfare and hotel).

    Travel documents as required by the Fellow's country of origin or the country hosting the meeting. Visa may be required. It is very IMPORTANT that the Fellow check with his or her local consulate agency.

    Transit Visas may be required to connect in certain cities or countries. Fellows should check with their local consulate agency.

    Fellows should always carry proof of health insurance. Insurance is NOT supplied by ICANN.

    ** All travel documents must be consistent with the name on the Fellow's valid passport **

  5. Personal Safety and Health

    Acquiring and paying for any and all insurance, including but not limited to travel insurance is the sole and exclusive responsibility of the Fellow.

    Claim processing (including any costs involved) is the responsibility of the Fellow.

    ICANN is not responsible for the personal health, safety or belongings of the Fellow.

    Each Fellow is exclusively responsible for maintaining his or her personal health and safety during the period of the Fellowship.

    ICANN strongly suggests that Fellows consult and comply with the views of the diplomatic and consular authorities of the country of their nationality in respect of travel conditions and safety of travellers applicable in the countries to be visited under this Fellowship. It is not ICANN's responsibility to inform or provide advice to applicants or Fellows about travel conditions or safety of travellers.

    Should travel to the selected destinations not be advised by the relevant authorities, the Fellow must immediately upon making a determination not to travel advise the ICANN Fellowship program administrator. ICANN will then make a determination whether to terminate the Fellowship.

    ICANN also strongly suggests that Fellows seek guidance from qualified health personnel concerning potential health risks in the areas to be visited. In preparing for a trip, Fellows should receive, at their own expense, all required and recommended immunizations and take malaria prophylaxis if traveling to an area where malaria is endemic.

    BE AWARE THAT SOME TRANSIT REGIONS MAY ALSO REQUIRE CERTAIN VACCINATIONS OR LAPSE TIME IN TRAVEL DUE TO YOUR REGION OF ORIGIN.

  6. Required Post Meeting Reporting

    Each Fellow is required to submit a summary report to ICANN within one month following the end of the Fellowship. The report shall outline the Fellow's experiences in the Fellowship program and outline his or her future contributions to the ICANN community and processes.

    Fellows MAY also be required to complete a feedback form to be submitted to ICANN on the quality of the Fellowship program itself at a later date following the ICANN meeting.

  7. Deferment

    If an applicant has been accepted as a Fellow to attend a particular ICANN meeting and, due to unforeseen extenuating circumstances, is unable to attend that meeting, upon the applicant's written request, ICANN may in its discretion and on a case by case basis depending on all relevant factors consider resubmitting that applicant's Fellowship application to be considered by the Fellowship Selection Committee for attendance at the next ICANN meeting.

  8. Failure to Comply with Terms and Conditions

    Please note that if a Fellow fails to comply with any one of the above mentioned terms and conditions of the ICANN Fellowship program, ICANN reserves the right to determine the appropriate course of action including, but not limited to: (i) terminating the Fellowship prior to the end of a meeting; (ii) causing the Fellow's early departure from the program and ICANN meeting; (iii) and/or asking the Fellow to cover costs for expenditures.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."