Grant-in-aid

The Association is happy to receive applications for grants from the organisers of scientific meetings, workshops and short courses that lie conformably with its charitable purpose, which is to promote research in palaeontology and its allied sciences. 

The Association will, via the Grants-in-Aid programme, consider applications to financially support workshops to be held as part of the Annual Meeting and Progressive Palaeontology. Further details on this are below.

General Regulations for all applications

• The Association will consider applications up to £2,000 GBP. 
• Applications must be received by the deadline of either the 1st March or the 1st September each year.
• Application must be made in good time. The proposed event must commencing no earlier than 6 months after the application round deadline applied to. 
• All applications are to be made by the scientific organiser(s) of the meeting using the online application form (see link below). 
• Applications will be considered by Council at either the May or October Council Meetings each year. 
• Applicants will normally be informed of the application outcome by the end of May or October (i.e. 2-3 weeks after the May or October Council meeting). 
• If the application is successful, we require that the support of the Association is acknowledged, preferably including reproduction of the Association's logo, in the meeting/workshop/short course literature and other media.
• Any monies granted must only be used for the specified purposes stated in the original grant application. Should circumstances change and the monies cannot be used then it is expected that all unspent amount is returned to Association.
• Retrospective changes to grant applications i.e. after the proposed event are not allowed.
• In the event of unforeseen changes in circumstances prior to the start of the proposed event (e.g. due to the current COVID pandemic, illness of keynote speakers, etc.) advice should be sought from the Association’s Executive Officer and/or the Secretary.
• Please see also the Palaeontological Association Grant Ethics and Conditions. 

Pre-submission enquiries may be made to the Secretary (secretary@palass.org).

Commitment to Diversity

The Palaeontological Association is committed to supporting individuals who belong to underrepresented groups within Palaeontology and increasing the representation of historically minoritized groups. As such, we ask meeting organizers, who are expecting any kind of sponsorship from PalAss (e.g., an entire meeting or conference, a session within a conference, or through financial support for students, or through advertisement of the event), to do their best to be aware of issues relating to equality, diversity and inclusion. We recognise that specific actions will depend on the circumstances of each event, but this may include accounting for diversity when choosing keynote speakers, being mindful of who is approached to organise symposia or chair sessions, or ensuring that events are as inclusive as possible. More importantly, all attendees should feel welcomed and safe in the conference and should not be discriminated against on the basis of race, colour, ethnic origins, immigration status, religion, age, marital status, parental status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, socioeconomic background, educational background, and disability. All those seeking sponsorship must include in their application a short statement as to how they have designed their event to support our goals of increasing representation of minorities in science. This will be a decisive criterion in PalAss’ evaluation of the proposal. Only those who intend to engage carefully and fully with the topic will be considered further. If these ambitions are not realized during the conference/meeting, the PalAss reserves the right to cease sponsorship of future events organized by the same organization and/or group.

Financial support via Grants-in-Aid programme for workshops at the Annual Meeting and Progressive Palaeontology

Workshops have been an important part of both the Annual Meeting and Progressive Palaeontology in recent years. These have typically been held the day before each meeting. 

The workshops are arranged in consultation with the local meeting organiser; the local organiser has the final decision as to how many and which events to select for inclusion in any workshop programme. It may (subject to the local organiser being able to facilitate it) be possible to arrange a hybrid event. Our preference, however, is to run the workshop as either an in person or a virtual event. We especially welcome suggestions for workshops that help the Association advance its commitments to EDI-related issues.

We invite those organising workshops at either the Annual Meeting or Progressive Palaeontology to apply for competitive funding via the Grants-in-Aid programme to help offset costs (e.g. travel, accommodation) incurred by those delivering the workshop, and/or to provide an honorarium (to a maximum of £250 GBP) for contributors. An honorarium may be appropriate to support ECRs/precariously-employed workers, others not in full-time, permanent employment, or where the contributions are by subject specialists on topics that do not necessarily form part of their core research activities. These examples are not exhaustive.

Before applying for funding, please liaise with the local meeting organiser and secure their support for the proposed activities.  You should confirm in your application that this support is in place. This is to avoid potential issues such as there not being the infrastructure available locally (rooms, etc), or time in the schedule, to accommodate the workshop.  

The Association may support a maximum of two workshops at each of the Annual Meeting and Progressive Palaeontology.  

Making an application for meeting or workshop/short course support

Applications must be made through online submission, for which you will need the following information:

1. Title of meeting/ workshop/ short course
2. Date and Place proposed
3. Name, position, and affiliation of the organiser(s)
4. Brief description (not more than 200 words) of the rationale behind the meeting/ workshop/ short course
5. Anticipated number of attendees
6. Amount requested
7. Other sources of funding applied for
8. Specific use to which requested funds will be put

Note 1: If funds are requested to support one or more keynote speakers, then full details of their names, affiliations and titles of presentations must be included. 
Note 2: The application will be strengthened if the keynote speaker(s) agrees to submit their paper as a review article for possible publication in Palaeontology / Papers in Palaeontology.

Deadline

1^st March and 1^st September each year at 23:59 GMT

Online Application Form

Application Form