The Management Committee of ESSA adopted an Equity Policy in its meeting on 25 September 2019. The Equity Policy was developed in order to further objectives 1, 3 and 6 (pertaining to furthering social simulation research and international collaboration) in section II of the Association’s Constitution, through removing financial barriers to participation in ESSA’s events where these arise largely from the country in which the research is conducted.

To this end, we have:

• adopted the Research4Life categorization of countries when considering equitable access to ESSA’s activities;
• updated our guidance to would-be conference organizers to ensure that they are costed assuming (a limited number of) reduced fees or fee waivers for participants from applicable countries;
• expanded our bursary scheme to allow applications from anyone from a Group A country to apply, regardless of career stage; and anyone from a Group B country to apply, so long as it is no more than seven years since they were awarded their Ph. D.

The policy will be evaluated and reviewed by each new Management Committee as data from conferences and other events become available.