Conference and Research Workshop Grants - Scheme 1

Objectives: To provide partial support for mathematical conferences and research workshops held in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. 

Please note that only one grant, per Scheme, per person, per LMS financial year (1 August - 31 July) is allowed.

Eligibility:

• Grant applicants should be a mathematician based in the UK, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands when the conference or workshop is planned. Applicants based outside of the UK at the time of application should provide proof that they will have relocated to the UK by the time of their conference. Please note that should a grant holder leave the UK before the planned conference then the grant will be withdrawn. There is the possibility of the grant being transferred to a co-organiser who is still based in the UK, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, with the agreement of the Research Grants Committee Chair.
• Please note that PhD students are not eligible to apply for a Research Conference and Workshop grant but can apply to the Postgraduate Conference Grant Scheme to support conferences organised by PhD students for PhD students.
• Non LMS members will need to ask an LMS member to counter-sign their application.
• The conference or research workshop must be held in the UK, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

Criteria:

• For conferences, the Society expects that the conferences will be open to all, and will only support a closed conference if an exceptional case is made. 
• Research Workshops are an opportunity for a small group of active researchers to work together for a concentrated period on a specialised topic. The primary purpose of the scheme is to support new research initiatives rather than meetings which form part of an established series. Research workshops may be closed events as long as all participants are involved in the programme; with the core group of mathematicians involved in the workshop listed. The participation of appropriate postdocs and graduate students is encouraged.
• Any changes to speaker lists that occur between the time of being awarded the grant and the event taking place need to be discussed and agreed by the Research Grants Committee Chair. If unauthorised changes are made to the speaker list and the speakers no longer meet the LMS requirements for diversity, funding can be withdrawn.
• The Society will support only mathematical meetings or the mathematical component of wider meetings, and here the word mathematical excludes mathematics education.
• Applicants must comply with the Society's policy on Women in Mathematics  - please note that the Society considers a lack of invited women speakers (for conferences) or invited women participants (for workshops) to be a very real problem, and a failure to include women speakers/participants are grounds for refusal for funding.
• Additionally, please note the following advice on diversity at conferences/workshops/seminars.

Value of award:  The maximum award is £5,500 towards actual travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses for:

• Principal speakers (for conferences)/principal participants (for workshops). 
• UK-based Research students
• Participants from Scheme 5 countries. Applicants unsure if the proposed country is eligible under a Scheme 5 grant should contact the Grants team.
• In addition, the Society allows the use of the grant award to cover Caring Costs for those attendees who have dependents.
• Hybrid events- the grant can be used to contribute towards the costs of running conferences/workshops, including contributing towards caring costs for those attending remotely. Further guidance about running hybrid events and how these can be supported by an LMS grant is available here.

The life of an LMS Grant is two financial years (1 August - 31 July). All awarded grants need to be claimed no later than the 31 July in the second year of the grant, i.e., if a grant is awarded in the 2023/24 financial year, the grant will need to be claimed by the 31 July 2026. Any grants that have not been claimed within the two-year period will be withdrawn.

Deadlines and decision timetable:

Applications should be submitted well in advance of the date of the conference or research workshop.

• Please note that applications will not be considered between mid-June and mid-October.
• Grants will not be made retrospectively.
• The Society is reluctant to award grants to conferences which clash with other significant mathematical meetings in the UK such as the British Mathematical Colloquium or the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium. 

Queries regarding applications can be addressed to the Grants Administrator or the Chair of the Research Grants Committee (RGC) who will be pleased to discuss proposals informally with potential applicants and give advice on the submission of an application.

Grants Administrator: Lucy Covington    Email: grants@lms.ac.uk

Chair of the Research Grants Committee (RGC): Professor Amanda Turner

Application Form:

To submit an application, you must be logged into your user account or registered as a user.

• Conferences and Research Workshops - Online Grant Application Form 
• Guidance Notes
• Guidance on Supporting Hybrid Meetings

Other sources of funding:

Information about other funding offered by other organisations can be found here. 

LMS Caring Costs Policy 

The LMS wishes to enable carers and parents to take part in the activities that it supports. Applicants for grants across Schemes 1-9, for Early Career Research activities or who will run Society Meetings can request funding to help mathematicians with caring or parenting responsibilities to participate in their activities. In addition, individuals requiring support for caring to attend conferences, workshops, research schools and meetings or to make research visits - not necessarily organised by LMS - can apply for a Caring Supplementary Grant to contribute to such costs.   

The Policy is available here. 

Testimonials

“The conference was a huge success. The invited speakers gave talks at a very high level, full of exciting developments. They pitched their talks in a way that was suitable for the research students attending”. – Prof. Imre Leader, Cambridge

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“Support from an LMS conference grant was crucial in the success of our workshop. In particular it allowed us to invite a more diverse range of speakers from abroad and to support early career participation”. – Dr Anthony Nixon, Lancaster

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“We are very thankful for the LMS support which contributed to the fulfilment of our "Edinburgh Mathematical Biology Conference 20223". This support allowed us to host keynote speakers whose talks significantly positively impacted the quality of the conference. Additionally, the LMS support offered us the opportunity to run a conference dinner for the invited speakers and poster presenters, which provided a relaxing environment and had a genuinely positive effect on the networking between the scientists and the potential development of new collaborations. Hence, the success of our event would not be the same without the LMS support”. – Dr Tatiana Filatova, Edinburgh

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“The LMS funded the second edition of our annual conference AGGITatE through a Scheme 1 grant. The LMS initial funding (the largest of all sources we used) was crucial for the event to go ahead and to win smaller complementary funds from other sources. Thanks to the LMS support we could fund accommodation for speakers and many UK-based early career researchers. We think it would have been difficult to find funding for a cross-discipline conference – on algebraic groups and algebraic geometry – without the initial support of the LMS”. – Dr Jesus Martinez Garcia, Essex

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“Being awarded a Conference Grant from the London Mathematical Society (LMS) in 2023 has allowed the Computational Biology research group at Brunel University London to invite well renowned mathematicians and computer scientists to present their latest research to a diverse audience. The grant has supported us in accommodating for both international speakers and participants, enhancing the topics discussed during our workshop. The grant has allowed us to continue to run an annual based workshop, encouraging participants to return as well as helping others and our own research group, to maintain collaborations as well as develop new ones”. – Dr Lorraine Ayad, Brunel

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