Glossary: Essential Application & Review Management Terms

Call for Abstracts (also Call for Presentations or Call for Speakers): An official announcement that abstract submissions are open for an event, which also details submission criteria and instructions for prospective presenters.

Call for Proposals: An official announcement that grant applications are open, along with submission criteria and instructions for prospective applicants.

Certification: Formal proof that an individual or organization has met the criteria for an industry standard. Organizations typically attain certifications through accreditation, while individuals usually have to pass an official assessment to obtain one.

Chair: An organizational staff member who is in charge of a specific application and review-based program or opportunity, providing oversight and delegating administrative responsibilities related to it.

Competition (or Contest): An award opportunity that typically requires potential winners to submit their own applications rather than be nominated by someone else and often involves judging a project of some kind.

Competition Management (or Contest Management): The process of administering competitions or contests, from creating and promoting applications all the way through to analysis and reporting after the chosen winners have received their awards.

Conditional Logic: A reasoning model involving if/then statements that some application and review platforms allow backend users to set up while creating submission forms to streamline the application process on both the applicant side and the administrative side. A form that’s configured to only allow users to click the Submit button when all required fields are filled in is an example of conditional logic in action.

Conference: An academic or industry-based event that brings members of a higher education or association community together to network and learn about specific topics of interest to them. It usually lasts one or more full days, includes multiple sessions, and can take place in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.

Conference Management: The process of organizing a conference for an association or higher education institution, which involves planning its logistics, delegating staff and volunteer duties, collecting registrations, marketing, choosing and scheduling speakers based on abstracts, setting up venues or software, and assisting attendees, among other activities.

Constituent Relationship Management System (CRM): A centralized database used by many types of organizations across the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Its role in application and review management is similar to that of an AMS.

Credential: Proof of qualifications or skills obtained through organizational accreditation, taking and passing courses as an individual, or other similar methods. Certifications fall under the broader umbrella of credentials, as they’re usually more formal and regimented.

Eligibility: A measure of whether an individual or organization meets the requirements to apply for a program or opportunity.

Exhibitor: A sponsor or other partner that occupies a booth during a trade show to directly promote their products or services.

Fellowship: A program that identifies individuals with strong potential in academics, professional fields, or other areas of expertise and supports them through financial assistance, skill development, and opportunities to contribute to their community.

Fellowship Management: The process of promoting fellowship opportunities, identifying potential fellows by thoroughly reviewing their submitted applications, ensuring fellows’ benefits are distributed to them as promised, and evaluating the effectiveness of such programs.

Fellowship Management Software: Technology platforms that streamline the administration of all fellowship-related activities, including promotion, application submission, review, communication, fund tracking, analytics, etc.

Grant: A funding opportunity designed to support an individual’s or organization’s in-progress or future project, program, or initiative, usually obtained by submitting a proposal to a grantmaking organization (which could be a foundation, government agency, corporation, association, or higher education institution).

Grant(s) Management: The process of collecting and reviewing grant proposals, making and communicating decisions, disbursing funds, and tracking progress for a grantmaking organization (as distinct from grant recipients’ grant management processes of seeking out and applying for grants, monitoring impact and spending, and reporting to grantmakers).

Grant(s) Management Software: Technology tools that grantmakers use for accepting and reviewing grant applications, monitoring fund disbursements and progress of funded initiatives, and streamlining internal and external communication. (These solutions are also distinct from grant management software designed for grant recipients to track and report on their grant-related spending and impact).

Integration: A connection between two distinct technology platforms that allows for automatic, seamless information sharing. For example, OpenWater’s application and review software integrates with more than 65 AMS, CRM, directory, and payment gateway solutions.

Judge (or Reviewer): An organizational staff member or external volunteer who has been given the responsibility of reviewing submitted applications for awards, abstracts, grants, scholarships, and fellowships to find the most deserving recipients, and does so by scoring every submission using a standardized rubric.

Nominee: An individual or organization whose name has been submitted to an application-based program (usually for an award) by someone else who believes they deserve that award.

Nomination: An application (usually for an award) that’s submitted by one individual or organization on behalf of another.

Nominator: A person who submits another individual’s or an organization’s name to an application-based program (usually for an award).

Presenter (or Speaker): An individual who has been selected to give a presentation at a conference based on the high quality of their submitted abstract.

Run of Show: An event schedule that’s more detailed than an agenda and is usually used by staff, volunteers, and speakers only (not attendees), featuring minute-by-minute timing of every aspect of a session and audio/visual production notes.

Scholarship: A designated amount of financial assistance to help cover the cost of educational pursuits for selected students, which may be awarded based on need, merit, or a combination of the two.

Scholarship Management: The process of evaluating candidates who apply for academic financial assistance, choosing and communicating with winners, and tracking fund disbursement and other program data.

Scholarship Management Software: Technology solutions to streamline scholarship applications, automate multi-round review processes and communications, monitor program funding, and pull analytics-driven reports.

Scoring Rubric: A document that outlines the criteria for assessing applications and supplying numerical ratings for different aspects of each submission to keep review processes as fair, objective, and straightforward as possible.

Session: A segment of a conference in which one or more presentations take place during a designated time block.

Speaker Management: The process of choosing, communicating with, and providing preparation support to event presenters, which is closely related to abstract management but more focused on individuals than submissions.

Sponsor: An individual or organization (often a business) that provides monetary support or other resources for an event, program, or specific application opportunity, typically in exchange for publicity, trade show participation, or other perks.

Submission: A completed application or nomination that has been sent in through the designated form for a specific program and is ready to be reviewed by judges.

Submission Form Abandonment Rate: The percentage of potential applicants who start filling out a submission form but don’t complete it, which is a helpful metric for understanding whether your applications are clear, concise, and user-friendly.

Trade Show: A standalone industry event or segment of a conference at which exhibitors display their products and services at booths and collect contact information for prospective customers.