Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing Grant

The Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing, offered by the Company of Biologists, aims to support innovative approaches that enhance collaboration among biologists while minimizing environmental impact. Grants are available for reducing travel needs, improving accessibility, and enhancing virtual interactions. Organizers of various events can apply for funding to develop sustainable practices, ensuring a more inclusive and eco-friendly conferencing experience. This initiative encourages creative solutions to promote sustainability in scientific gatherings.

NOTE: Funding decisions are made six to eight weeks after each application deadline.
Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists is a not-for-profit publishing organisation dedicated to supporting and inspiring the biological community.
Grants from the Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing are available to support innovative ideas that enable biologists to collaborate proactively whilst minimising their impact on the environment – for example by:
Reducing travel requirementsIncreasing accessibility and inclusivityImproving interaction opportunities for geographically diverse participantsEnhancing the ‘human’ experience of virtual meetings
Organisers of conferences, workshops, seminars, training, and networking events can apply for grants in the following categories:
Measures to reduce the carbon footprint of travel (up to £1,000)for example, removing the necessity to fly by asking speakers to present virtually, or maximising the number of non-local speakers travelling by train or other relatively low-carbon transportAdditional cost of technology (up to £2,500)for example, rental of a virtual platform or equipment to host a virtual element, technology and associated support/serviceswe are particularly keen to fund innovative technologies or innovative uses of existing technologiesInnovative feature (up to £2,500)for example, the development of an app to enhance the experience of virtual attendeesOther (up to £1,000)measures to improve sustainability that are not covered by any of the other categoriesinnovative measures are particularly encouraged
Applicants will be asked to summarise how they would use the funding to make their meeting more sustainable, including any planned innovations that may help others to run more sustainable meetings.

Eligibility

Whilst Grants from the Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing are open to be applied for by organisers of seminars, funding will generally be limited to one grant per series.An exception may be made for a new, exciting, and more innovative proposal within the same series.The individual who completes the application must be in the organising group for the event.

Ineligibility

We will not fund:Plastic-free badges, recycled posters/banners, composting of discarded materials as these should be standard arrangements for a conference aiming to be sustainable.Conference bags or gifts (mugs, pens etc) as we discourage conference organisers from providing free gifts, even if sustainably sourced.Apps unless they contribute to sustainable conferencing practices beyond simply avoiding printing a conference booklet. We do however encourage applications for innovative apps that facilitate remote interactions.Registration fee waiversElectric screens for displaying posters or conference information at in-person meetings.Costs associated with catering (e.g. sustainably sourced food or re-usable cutlery). We encourage sustainable catering, but do not fund it through this funding scheme.Equipment purchases.Offsetting carbon expenditure from flights. Our aim is to encourage and explore changes in behaviour so, while offsetting may be helpful in cases where flying is unavoidable, this is not something we fund through this scheme.Subsidised travel to encourage non-stop flights as we cannot monitor validity.Duplicated requests (i.e. where same funding requested under Scientific Meeting Grants and Sustainable Conferencing Grants).Sponsorship (i.e. where we are offered something in exchange for funding).Childcare costs as there are currently insufficient funds within the budget for childcare to be considered for funding.Grants cannot be awarded retrospectively.Applications from professional fundraisers and conference agencies are generally not considered.Although there is no restriction on nationality, we are unable to pay awards to recipients in jurisdictions, countries, or regions of the world subject to sanctions, embargoes or other political trade restrictions put in place by the United Nations, the EU, or the UK.