Strengthening Community Engagement at TPAC 2025: looking back at the IE & inclusion Funds

For the 8th year in a row, W3C was able to coordinate an Inclusion Fund for TPAC 2025, our annual conference, and for the first time we expanded it to include a W3C Invited Experts support fund. The goal is to reduce barriers for participants who are contributing positively to the work of W3C groups, but who require financial support to be more actively involved.

Our criteria this time put the emphasis on established contributors, in particular editors, chairs and those participating in elected bodies. Prioritization continued unchanged: under-represented groups, to improve diversity of background, gender, experiences, expertise and skills.

Of the 67 applications, 26 matched the eligibility criteria, passed our screening, and were approved by our selection committee, so we were able to allocate funding to 13 awardees in the TPAC Inclusion Fund, and 13 awardees in the Invited Expert Support Fund. It was an initial success that we were able to fund almost 4 times as many awards as all previous 7 years combined! But the success did not stop there because the funds worked as intended and were a true enabling program.

There was significant interest from applicants who were overall very diverse, with broad under-represented groups/region/gender representation

• 15 women, 9 men and 2 gender-diverse individuals.
• 12 from Europe (6 economies), 10 from North America (2 from Canada and 8 from the United States) and 4 from Asia Pacific.
• 19 independent experts, 7 employed by W3C members but not able to secure funding support from their employer.
• Several of the experts live with a disability.
• Wide representation of skills and knowledge, with a good mix of technical expertise and UX design expertise, including individuals contributing already to our accessibility, security and privacy work.