The Company of Biologists’ Sustainability Grants
As part of The Company of Biologists’ Sustainability Initiative (formerly known as our Sustainable Conferencing Initiative), we offer grants from our Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing to support innovative ideas that enable biologists to collaborate productively while minimising their impact on the environment – for example by:
- Reducing travel requirements
- Increasing accessibility and inclusivity
- Improving interaction opportunities for geographically diverse participants
- Enhancing the ‘human’ experience of virtual meetings
What grants are available?
The following types of grants are available from our Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing.
- 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 transport
- for example, rental of a virtual platform or equipment to host a virtual element, IT and associated support/services
- we are particularly keen to fund innovative technologies or innovative uses of existing technologies
- for example, the development of an app to enhance the experience of virtual attendees
- measures to improve sustainability that are not covered by any of the other categories
- innovative 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.
Who can apply for a grant? When are the application deadlines?
Full details about applying for a grant from our Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing (including application deadlines and terms and conditions) are available here.
Exclusions
We will not fund the following:
- 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 (e.g. 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. However we do encourage applications for innovative apps that facilitate remote interactions.
- Registration fee waivers
- Electric 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 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 the same funding is requested under Scientific Meeting Grants and grants from the Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing Initiative)
- 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
