Sardinia on a shoestring

As I was putting together a proposal for a special ABC session at ISBA 2016 in Santa Margherita di Pula, Sardinia, I received worried replies from would-be participants about the affordability of the meeting given their research funds! Since I had a similar worry with supporting myself and several of my PhD students, I looked around for low-cost alternatives and [already] booked a nearby villa in Santa Margherita di Pula for about 100€ per person for the whole week. Including bikes. Plus, several low-cost airlines like Easy Jet and Ryanair fly to Cagliari from European cities like Berlin, Paris, London, Geneva, and most Italian cities, for less than 100€ round-trip [with enough advanced planning] and if one really is on half a shoestring, there are regular buses connecting Cagliari to Santa Margherita di Pula for a few euros. This means in the end that supporting a PhD student or a postdoc within 5 years of a Ph.D. to attend ISBA 2016 from Europe can be budgeted at as low as a tight 500€ under limited funding resources, including the registration fees of 290€… So definitely affordable with long-term planning!