Under this scheme BIRTHA offers support for research students who wish to organise conferences, both conferences in which all or most of the speakers are postgraduates, and those involving members of academic staff from both within and outside the University.
Up to two BIRTHA postgraduate conferences will be allocated per academic year.
If you wish to organise such a conference, you should first speak to your adviser about it. You should remember that a half-day event requires much less work than a longer conference in which you have to arrange for food and accommodation.
Organisers should draw up a description of the event and submit a basic business plan (a statement of basic costs and sources of revenue) using the forms below, and try to make the event break even by applying for funding from other organisations.The committee would also like to see that you have thought about outcomes eg: journal publication of conference proceedings.
Other sources of revenue can be sought from the applicant’s own department, the Alumni Foundation and other outside organisations who would have interest in supporting the event (check with your department).
BIRTHA, however, will provide an initial ‘float’ of up to £500, and either a subsidy or a guarantee against loss of up to £500. In exceptional cases BIRTHA might give a larger grant, but a strong case would have to be made. In addition the BIRTHA administrator will provide advice and reasonable assistance. However, the organisation of the conference remains the responsibility of the student organiser or organisers.
The conference must be named as a 'BIRTHA Postgraduate Conference' - the BIRTHA logo and the University logo must be used on all publicity.
BIRTHA will consider a proposal for any such event. All such proposals will be considered on their merits. However, where possible BIRTHA seeks to encourage events that are inter- or multi-disciplinary, or that involve more than one subject or department, or that have a national or international dimension.
Please submit the following 2 forms along with a short letter of support from your adviser (or the School Deputy Head of Research), which should state that the applicant has the capacity and the time available to organise a successful event along the lines proposed. Where there are two or more applicants, one should be designated the principal organiser.
The BIRTHA Co-ordinator and Director are available at all times to give advice.
Deadline: Tuesday 24 January 2012
Tuesday 1 May 2012