New funding rules for 2010

Assessment of proposals is now competitive, a number of funding rounds will be held throughout the year. 

Funding round close dates:

10 March 2010

16 April 2010

13 August 2010

Applications must normally be for events to be held no less than three months after the closing date. 

Final reports and the invoice for sponsorship must be received within 90 days after the event for payment. 

The new arrangements will be reviewed at the end of 2010.

Call for proposals: Workshops, Conferences, etc.

Assessment of proposals is competitive based on scientific merit and likely national impact.

Workshops and conferences usually run for between one and five days, and address a specific field, or even a particular research problem. 

Funding can be provided to fully or partially support travel and accommodation of some invited speakers and is usually in the range of $1,000 to $10,000, dependent on the size of the event. Catering and venue hire will not normally be covered.

Applicants are encouraged to use AMSI premises if practicable as they are modern, very well equipped and centrally located, with good access to transport and a range of hotels and other accommodation.

Please provide proposals in plain text or pdf format only.

• adequate motivation for the meeting
• a budget
• list the main invited speakers and give reasons why they have been chosen
• the number of likely attendees from Australia including students and post docs
• name some of the key attendees

When requesting support for travel expenses of invited speakers, be sure to make a case for the national need to support that particular speaker in connection with the activity.

AMSI will not support regular workshops, conferences or other meetings, such as The Annual Canberra Reunion of Stochastic Topologists. However, it may support workshops that are run in parallel with such gatherings, provided they offer something special to the Australian mathematical sciences community (i.e. something different from the usual meeting, of interest to a range of people other than those who generally attend the meeting). The proposal should make it clear that support is not being sought for the regular meeting, but to expand/increase participation in the associated workshop. AMSI will not usually fund special sessions at conferences. We may support satellite meetings associated with major conferences.

Special Theme Programs

AMSI occasionally funds Special Theme Programs, supporting (i) a relatively long period of research interaction or (ii) emerging topics of an especially timely nature; involving both workshop-type activity and collaborative research.

Please contact AMSI for further information if you are considering organising such an event.

Delegate travel

Event organisers do not need to budget for travel subsidies for delegate travel to events. AMSI has supplied every member institution with a travel budget for this purpose. Intending delegates only need to apply to their Head of Mathematics or Statistics and gain approval from the AMSI Director. The budget is primarily intended for students and early career researchers, who do not normally have access to grant funds. However its use is at the discretion of the Head. The process, including suggested wording for the web site, is set out here.

Promotion

AMSI requires that its sponsorship and logo (where feasible) appear on the conference web page, on all publicity including calls for papers and announcement emails, and on the program and other material given to delegates.

If AMSI is the principal sponsor, this should be noted. In this case too, the sponsorship information should definitely be on the conference home page and prominent in the other material. In most such cases, AMSI expects that the event would be formally named along the lines of 'The AMSI XYZ Workshop'.

Delegate feedback

A standard feedback form may be downloaded here. We request organisers to use this to collect participant responses to the event.

Reporting

AMSI requires each organiser to provide a report after the workshop so that AMSI in turn can report to its members (in documents such as the Annual Report) and to governments supporting AMSI and ICE-EM activities. The report (excluding detailed financials but including AMSI sponsorship details for the guidance of others) will also be put on the AMSI website. The information provided will assist in supporting arguments for the value of activities that AMSI and its members undertake and will assist AMSI and ICE-EM to improve their facilitation processes.

Please provide items 1-3 of the report in a standard word processor or text or spreadsheet form, as appropriate. (Not pdf, so that reported items inappropriate for making public can be edited.)

1. A 1-2 page report on the workshop addressing briefly the following points:

• Reason for holding the workshop
• Target audience
• Marketing
• Organising committee (names, organisation)
• Special presenters and (very briefly) their international reputations
• Topics covered
• Participant profile (e.g. numbers by organisation, undergraduate/postgradaute/postdoctoral/industry, Australian/international)
• Measures of success (attendance, analysis of data from feedback form)
• Feedback from a review of the seminar by the organising committee (e.g. would you do anything different next time, how could AMSI improve its assistance?)

Note that the report should be written as though to a colleague from another AMSI member institution who doesn't know anything about your workshop.

2. Financial reporting:

• Sponsorships, including in-kind
• Scholarships offered and taken
• Fees charged
• Income and expenditure (noting which items of expenditure were from the AMSI sponsorship)
  

3. Electronic list of delegates and institutions, including email addresses (only for informing them of future AMSI events). The list will be put in the report on the web site but without contact details. If you think it is necessary, obtain permission for this.

4. Electronic copy of program, including at least the invited speakers (and their institutions), titles of presentations and abstracts if available.

Please note: AMSI will not pay sponsorship if all reports and the invoice for payment are not received within 90 days of the event 

Applications

Expressions of Interest should be addressed to:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Chair, AMSI Scientific Advisory Committee
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308