LMS Travel Grants for Early Career Researchers

Objectives:
To provide partial travel and/or accommodation support for UK-based Early Career Researchers to attend conferences or undertake research visits either in the UK or overseas.

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

Eligibility:
The applicant should be an Early Career Researcher in mathematics, based in the UK. An Early Career Researcher is defined as a PhD/research student or anyone who has completed their PhD in the last five years (excluding academic career breaks). Masters Students will not be considered.

The scheme is open to both members and non-members of the LMS. Non-members must have their application countersigned by a member of the society or give details of a current LMS member willing to support the application.

Please note that normally at most one application for a given conference can be funded per department.

Criteria:

• The conference or research visit must take place after the Committee’s decision date. The Society does not award grants retrospectively.
• The applicant should meet the eligibility criteria described above at the time of the conference/research visit.
• The conference/research visit must be of benefit to the applicant’s research.
• The conference/research visit must not already have funds from an LMS Conference (Scheme 1) Grant to support the attendance of research students.
  • The LMS awards Scheme 1 Grants to conferences based in the UK.  You are advised to check with the conference organiser first whether they have received a Scheme 1 Grant, which includes support for research students.
• The conference/research visit must not be another LMS event, which already offers support for research students to attend, including but not limited to: LMS Society Meetings, LMS Research Schools, LMS Invited Lecture Series.
• The application must not be for a travel grant to attend an ICM or ECM.  The Society runs a separate travel grant scheme for attending these congresses and more information can be found here
• UK-based mathematicians who have been invited to attend the Heidelberg Laureate Forum should apply for a travel grant under this scheme.
• Applications must be accompanied by a letter of support from, for example. the Head of School/Department, which should cover how the conference/research visit will benefit the applicant and include details about what other funding is available to the applicant.  The letter of support will be used when the application is considered by the Committee. Please note that if the letter of support does not specify the availability of funding from other sources then the application would be rejected.
• Applications should include full details of the trip, and not just the details of the event for which you are seeking funding from the ECR Travel Grant Scheme.
• Priority will be given to those applying for research visits with conference attendance.
• Long-distance trips of short duration are less likely to be funded.
• As with all LMS grants, ECR Travel Grants must only be used for the conference/research visit, which was mentioned in the application because the Committee made their decision to award the grant, based on this information. Please note that this is a Travel Grant and not  a Travel Allowance. In the interest of fairness to other applicants, if your plans change, the Travel Grant cannot be transferred to another conference/research visit. Instead, you must notify the LMS that you are no longer attending the conference / undertaking the research visit so that the Travel Grant can be cancelled. A new application for financial support will then need to be submitted for the new conference/research visit (NB if there is a change in dates of either the conference and/or research visit, please contact the LMS as soon as you know).

Value of award:
The maximum award is normally £500 towards actual expenses for travel costs, which can include accommodation and visa costs but not subsistence costs or conference/registration fees.

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/research visit.

*Please note the dates stated here are the earliest start dates of the conference/research visit for an application submitted by the relevant deadline. You can submit an application to attend a conference/research visit that starts after these dates.

For overseas conferences, visa applications should be made in good time before the conference.

Please note that applications will not be considered between mid-April and mid-November.

Frequently Asked Questions: Answers to some FAQs can be found here.

Queries regarding applications can be addressed to the Grants & Membership Administrator or the Chair of the Early Career Research Committee (ECRC) 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: ecr.grants@lms.ac.uk

Chair of the Early Career Research Committee (ECRC): Professor Jelena Grbic ecr.grants@lms.ac.uk

Application Form (online)

Sample copy of the application form.

Other sources of funding:

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