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2012 committee - please note that the EPSRC contact is now Dr Philippa Hemmings, and the likelihood of receiving funding from EPSRC is low. See email of 7/6/11 below.

Contact:
David Harman
Head of Mathematical Sciences and Head of Public Engagement
EPSRC
01793 444304
david.harman@epsrc.ac.uk 

PA: Catherine Bailey
01793 444324
catherine.bailey@epsrc.ac.uk

Our contact: Steven Hill


Emails to/from David Harman

To, 23/06/10
Dear David,

Eight PhD students from the University of Warwick Mathematics and Complexity Science departments are collaborating to organise the 3rd 'Young Researchers in Mathematics' conference to be held at Warwick in April 2011 (YRM2011) .

Your name was passed to us by the previous organisers with whom we are in close contact and who are providing us with the benefit of their experience. EPSRC generously provided funding for each of the first two YRM conferences, both held in Cambridge (the first was under the different name of 'Beyond Part III'). Both were a great success, engendering requests for more of this type of meeting. We aim to build upon this great success whilst taking the brave step of moving YRM away from Cambridge. It is hoped that moving YRM around UK universities will increase awareness of the conference and enhance inter-departmental collaborations and networking between PhD students. It will also give a wider range of students the exciting opportunity to organise such a conference.

At this stage we are investigating funding options available to us for 2011. Please can you advise us of any available EPSRC grant schemes that are targeted towards funding such an event or aspects of the event?

In particular, we are keen to support delegates from minority groups. This includes PhD students from small postgraduate departments who have few opportunities to present work to peers, meet world-class speakers and network with other PhD students both in their own areas and in the broader mathematical community.
 
Best regards,
 
Steven
 

From, 25/6/10
I think it is an excellent idea to move the conference around and have it organised at Warwick next year, and I agree with the idea of encouraging participants from smaller departments.

There are no grant schemes available for conferences; in previous years I have provided some sponsorship funding from a small discretionary fund available to Heads of Programme.

I am happy in principle to consider doing this again, but, at the moment, I cannot make any commitment. Public sector bodies have no certainty of funding beyond March 2011 until the the results of the Government's Spending Review are announced in October. In reality, it is likely that Research Council budgets will not be resolved until December. Thus you may like to write to me again in late December/January, but you should also bear in mind the expectation that public sector funding will be severely constrained. You should not rely on any expectation of funding from EPSRC.


To, 21/1/11

We contacted you last June regarding funding for Young Researchers in Mathematics (YRM) 2011, to be held at the University of Warwick 14-16th April. You advised us to contact you again in the New Year when more would be known about EPSRC's own funding situation (emails are below).

We have secured funding from Winton Capital, LMS and IMA, but are still suffering from a funding gap of around £2000. Registration is going well and we have already exceeded the 200 delegates that attended YRM 2010. We had anticipated a drop in attendance given the move away from Cambridge. We are obviously very pleased this has not occurred, but the high attendance is placing a strain on funds. Hence, any funding that EPSRC is able to provide for YRM 2011 would be greatly appreciated. Please let us know if you would like any more information about the conference or require a more formal application. The conference website is www.go.warwick.ac.uk/yrm2011.

We look forward to hearing from you.


From, 28/1/11

I am glad to see that the conference is proving popular at its new location.

We still do not have budgets at programme level so I am not in a position to make a commitment. I will note the conference as a ‘first call’ on the fund, if there is one, but I cannot say when I will be able to make a final decision. The best I can suggest is that you check with me in a further month. If I get firm news before then I will let you know.

I would recommend that you do not count on any funding from EPSRC; if we can support the conference it will be a bonus for your finances, but if we cannot you will be less disappointed.


To, 6/6/11

Dear David,

We managed to find sufficient funding for the YRM 2011 conference from other sources and therefore did not persist in requesting funds from EPSRC. However, I am pleased to announce that the conference will be held at Bristol University in 2012 (see their link on our page for details: www.go.warwick.ac.uk/yrm2011) and I expect that the 2012 organising committee will also approach EPSRC for funding. Therefore, for your interest, I reproduce below a debrief document for YRM 2011.

Best regards,

Steven

------------------------------

As you may be aware from personal involvement, YRM 2011 was a great success, with over 190 student delegates attending and 93 student talks covering areas ranging from Mathematical Biology to Number Theory. In addition, 14 of the UK's most eminent mathematicians attended to give keynote and plenary talks, and the conference is on track to move to Bristol University in 2012.

A major aim of YRM is to facilitate networking and collaboration between young researchers. To attempt to measure our success in this area we asked our delegates to complete a feedback form. Around half said that they had had conversations which had helped their research, and nearly 40% said they had met other researchers with whom they might collaborate in future. Particular comments included `Discussing my work with others inspired me to prove an extension' and `we had a very interesting conversation about gene regulatory networks'; more examples can be found on our website. go.warwick.ac.uk/yrm2011/ debrief2011

Several keynote speakers commented on the very high standard of the student talks. The structure of the conference works well; students have commented that the length of the talks (40 minutes) is `perfect, long enough to get into the details of my work'. Dividing the conference into 13 tracks with up to 8 running in parallel allows talks to be focused and subject-specific, and results in `very fruitful feedback'.

Although we only advertised YRM within the UK as we were unable to subsidise accommodation or travel for other students, approximately 30 students from other countries including the US and Australia attended.

We have succeeded in attracting 5 new sponsors to the conference this year, enhancing the ability of YRM to be self-sustaining and institution-independent; delegates expressed enthusiasm for the 2012 event in Bristol.

It is expected that the impact of YRM2011 will include enhancement of delegates' PhD research through interaction with others working in similar fields, interaction with keynote speakers and the formation of collaborations. The opportunity to attend research talks across the broad range of pure and applied mathematics enables early career mathematicians to see their own work in context, and to produce new links with the theories and techniques of other areas.

The provision of workshops to enhance teaching in HE plus the careers event provided an element of CPD and career planning for delegates.

The conference organisation over these many months has proved to be of suitable calibre; the problems that arose during the conference were very minor, most had been anticipated and plans made to mitigate them worked very well. The experience of running a sizeable conference has now been extended to a further 8 early career mathematicians at Warwick, who are equipped with new skills to contribute to the mathematics community for the future. A further 13 benefited from the training we provided, and the experience of chairing the various subject-specific tracks, including undertaking the research necessary to provide a suitable biographic introduction of their keynote speaker. These valuable learning experiences will be enjoyed by successive committees, each committing to assist the subsequent committee. Various sponsors required event feedback, and the necessary reports have been sent.

Based on the feedback received, we are confident that the reputation of the University of Warwick has been enhanced by the hosting of YRM2011 here. The many positive comments on the subject of research progress are matched by appreciation of the quality of the organisation, facilities, accommodation and catering. All delegates seem to have found YRM2011 an enjoyable experience on all levels.

From, 7/6/11

Steven,

I’m glad the conference was successful and that you found alternative sponsors. It appears that EPSRC has no funding for such activities in future, so although there is no harm in next year’s organising committee asking EPSRC, you may like to warn them that the prospects of success are not high. A pity, I think, since relatively modest sponsorship funding can do a lot of good.

I have finished my appointment with the Mathematical Sciences programme. My successor is Dr Philippa Hemmings.

David Harman
Lead, Public Engagement Embedding
EPSRC


MJB

For YRM2010, Rosie advises they were insisting on a minimum applied maths to continue funding. James suggested asking them how much applied they require and providing that proportion before going back to ask for funding .

MJB 20/05/2010
As ours are PhDs and Postdocs it may be that EPSRC is already funding many of these already with a travel budget included, and would prefer to support (prestigious) speakers. We should make a long list of invited speakers and capitalise on the previous years' lists.

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