LMS

Completed Grant Application form (.rtf file).
Application form is for Scheme 8 (postgraduate conferences).

Award document + conditions (PDF Document)

Report required after conference by 16/7/11 - Report document

Proposal to the LMS for future YRM activities and affiliation

Minutes of meeting with LMS on 15/04/2011

13/10/10 MJB
£4000 awarded 11/10/10

Emailed to Fiona on 20/09/2010 (Monday).
Fiona's reply: Many thanks for the application, which is very comprehensive. The Finance & General Purposes Committee will consider this on Friday and make a recommendation to Council at its meeting on 8 October 2010. I will let you know the outcome shortly thereafter.

11/05/10 MJB
The LMS has already been of assistance in providing a list of female potential speakers from which we can begin to address the inequality in proportion of female keynote speakers compared to the proportion of female participants. We request the ongoing financial support for the conference which, we believe, has a key role to play in the development of all early career Mathematicians, and particularly that of underrepresented minorities.

Proposal Text

Young Researchers in Mathematics (YRM) 2011 is a 3-day conference run by and aimed at doctoral and post-doctoral researchers within the broad area of Mathematics.
The conference aims to facilitate networking and collaboration between early career research mathematicians from different institutions, forming working relationships which will persist into the future. The event will take place at Warwick Mathematics Institute on 14-16 April 2011. In bringing the conference to the University of Warwick, the current committee aims to establish this unique event within the mathematics research community.

The conference incorporates nine parallel subject-specific tracks, each allowing students to showcase and discuss their research in relevant seminars. All students will be encouraged to present their work in a formal setting. Furthermore, senior mathematicians will give both plenary talks and, within each track, keynote talks. The conference will therefore encompass a wide range of research topics, but in specialised settings. Building upon the success of YRM 2010, we aim to attract approximately 200 young researchers from institutions across the UK and internationally. Our provisional plan for the conference is:

Thursday: introductions; tracks; dinner; plenary lecture; social event
Friday: tracks; lunch; tracks; plenary lecture; party
Saturday: tracks; lunch; cultural activity; farewells

It is particularly important for early career mathematicians to establish working relationships with those at other institutions. Feedback shows that one of the key successes of previous YRM conferences is the provision of an excellent opportunity for networking through small groups, social activities and a friendly atmosphere. We feel this is of especially great benefit to researchers in academically isolated situations. We are making on-going efforts to promote YRM to small Mathematics departments across the UK and have already received enthusiastic expressions of interest.

In 2011, for the first time in YRM’s short, vibrant history, the conference will be held away from Cambridge University. We consider this a crucial step in establishing YRM as an institution-independent conference. Changing locations annually will allow for wider participation in all aspects of the conference, including its organisation. Providing more young researchers with the opportunity to take an organisational role will resource the mathematical community.

Warwick Mathematics Institute fully supports the conference and is providing valuable organisational assistance and advice. This is a student-run project and we are therefore very conscious of our budget and will be actively seeking to make our money go further. However, several previous funding streams, specific to Cambridge University, are not available to us. A grant from the LMS could make a substantial contribution to our resources; in particular, support for invited speakers' and participants’ expenses. It would directly help us to keep registration fees down and thereby make the event as accessible as possible for research students.

Please see go.warwick.ac.uk/YRM2011 and youngresearchersinmaths.org for further information regarding the forthcoming and previous conferences.

Proposal to the LMS for future YRM activities and affiliation Proposal document

Minutes of meeting 15/04/2011

A meeting was held between Fiona Nixon, Executive secretary of the LMS, Professor Samir Siksek of WMI and a LMS member, David Holmes and Martine Barons of the YRM 2011 committee, Tom Bloom of the YRM 2012 committee, during the conference lunch break on Friday 15th April 2011.
As previously discussed, the LMS have agreed to provide £3,000 for the YRM network. Dr. Marj Bachelor of Cambridge has secured a further £2,000 of funding.
The LMS would like the institution hosting the satellite meeting to apply for the funding direct via a named mathematician, and process expenses claims according to their usual procedures. Fiona was unclear whether this mathematician had to be an LMS member, and was unaware that an LMS member was required to sign the grant application for YRM2011. [We did not pursue this in depth; I believe Marj is discussing this with Stephen Hugget.]
The LMS would like a committee formed of one or two members of the LMS programme committee and YRM nominees to provide a central review of the workshops, collate receipts and claim forms and audit them and report to the LMS. This would involve an annual face-to-face meeting either at De Morgan House or in the committee members' institution.
DH pointed out that running YRM is a considerable commitment in itself, and membership of such a committee for 2 or 3 years, within the time frame of a PhD, is unrealistic.
The matter of the inappropriate restriction on spending LMS money on students when YRM is a conference made up almost entirely of students was raised by Samir Siksek.
Fiona suggested YRM write a report on this for the LMS programme committee.
The matter of timing / competition for delegates and funding with the BMC and BAMC was raised. Fiona explained that the LMS did not wish to fund anything that detracted from events they already fund, and would ask the BMC and BAMC if they felt YRM had impacted on their events. SS pointed out the shortcomings of the organisation of the BMC PhD event as he experienced them having nominated two of his students to go, and suggested that this would explain any reduction of numbers of PhD students better than YRM. DH and MJB pointed out that YRM is a very different event, and there are students going to both. A discount for going to more than one was briefly discussed with BMC / BAMC, but too late to change YRM's pricing structure. Having explained that YRM could not afford to provide a discount, it was asked if the LMS would fund such discounts, Fiona responded that it would be up the BAMC / BMC to allocate from their grant for this purpose.
Fiona suggested YRM write a report on this for the LMS programme committee.
DH raised the possibility that the LMS would underwrite YRM; it is difficult at the beginning of the process when the YRM committee has to make financial commitments to pay for services, e.g. accommodation before any funding has come in. Fiona thought it unlikely that the LMS would expose itself to risk, and suggested that YRM should apply for funding a year earlier. DH pointed out that this would be difficult as the location etc. of the next YRM would not be known at that point.
Fiona suggested YRM write a report on this for the LMS programme committee.
DH/MJB said that one of the most important things was to keep Marj Batchelor around; her energy and ehthusism for the event was key. Fiona did not seem to think the LMS could help.
A central website, provided by the LMS was suggested, as a place where information about the satellite and YRM could be posted. TB asked if YRM could blog there, and Fiona explained that this would be possible in the near future, but the website is currently under reconstruction.