Support for new members

IAPS recognises that often financial constraints can constitute a significant barrier to the creation of new National and Local Committees (NCs and LCs). In some instances, the founders of the new committees have to pay out-of-pocket for the legal and administrative fees required to create an association in their country. Moreover, when a committee is very young, it is sometimes hard to collect money to organise its first events.

Two related grants are offered by IAPS to mitigate this problem and kick-start NCs and LCs; both are detailed here for convenience. Interested parties may apply for both or either of the grants, depending on their need.

Projects

Two distinct activities for which support is made available are envisaged.

Legal-Administrative Fees.The applicant can apply for partial reimbursement from IAPS for fees validly and necessarily incurred in the establishment of their new organisation. This can include for example fees required to submit documents to a register of legal associations, to have founding documents reviewed by a legal professional if the law demands it, or to open a new bank account for the organisation.

Committee Kickstart Event. The applicant can apply for reimbursement of expenses, such as refreshments or advertising materials, related to an event undertaken with the goal of kickstarting the new organisation. This could be a social event intended to present the new organisation, a scientific conference targeted at the organisation’s members, or otherwise.

Scope

In each case, the Executive Committee makes the final decision of whether to award monies or not and if so how much, depending on the request, the supporting documentation, the financial situation of the new committee, and IAPS’ available funds. In both cases, a statement of accounts and a projected first-year budget for the new committee must be submitted.

Legal-Administrative Fees. IAPS will reimburse up to €250 of a National Committee’s, or up to €50 of a Local Committee’s, fees incurred as part of the registration process for a new organisation in the applicable country. All fees must be accompanied by receipts, and by an explanation of why the fee was unavoidable in order to register the organisation.

Committee Kickstart Event. IAPS will reimburse up to €200 of a National Committee’s, or up to €75 of a Local Committee’s, expenses from the holding of the event. The request must be supported by a final budget for the event and original receipts for all expenses claimed. The Executive Committee will make the final decision also accounting for the quality of the events organised (how many people were reached in how many different universities, etc.), and whether the same country or city has previously been a member of IAPS.

Application

One National or Local Committee of IAPS can apply after being accepted as a provisional or full member of IAPS. Prospective new members must first officially become provisional members before applying.

Applications must be sent by email, to grants@iaps.info. In the case of either grant, the application must include:

  • A statement of accounts and projected first-year budget for the organisation
  • The exact amount of money requested, supported by original receipts
  • The contact details of the responsible committee member(s)*
  • The bank account details of the National or Local Committee

Successful applicants can be announced publicly, with their permission.

Legal-Administrative Fees. The application must also include:

  • A breakdown of the fees, with justification for each

Committee Kickstart Event. The application must also include:

  • A final budget for the event
  • Examples of future sources of funding
  • A short report on the event, in publishable form
  • An article for inclusion in jIAPS

It is highly recommended that applicants use this grant to hold events which will raise their profile, and off the back of that, contact universities and businesses for future sponsorship immediately after their foundation. Therefore, applications must include examples of other sources of funding which they plan to use in the future: grants or subsidies from physics departments or national physics associations, sponsorship by private companies, membership fees, etc.

Awarding

The award is made at the discretion of the Executive Committee based on available funds; the EC may decide to award less than the amount requested. For small grant amounts, the EC may award the grant as a rebate on future fees that will be due to IAPS, e.g. membership fees.

Monies will be paid only to the association’s bank account. If an applicant cannot provide an association bank account for monies to be paid into, the grant will be deemed to have been forfeited.

The decision of the IAPS Executive Committee shall be final.

Legal-Administrative Fees. The grant will be paid only as a reimbursement for fees already paid, not for expected future expenses.

Committee Kickstart Event. The entire amount of the reimbursement will be awarded after the event takes place.

Report. Committee Kickstart Event. The event report must be in publishable form. Submitted materials will be free for use by IAPS in any promotion deemed appropriate by the EC. 

Restrictions

  • Applications can only be made in the year that the event will take place, regardless of IAPS’ financial year.
  • Each grant can be awarded to a committee once only.
  • Applications must be made within the first calendar year** after the committee is accepted as a provisional member of IAPS.

Committee Kickstart Event.

  • The event must already have taken place in order to be eligible.
  • The event may be subsidised by only one IAPS grant at a time.

*Name, university, email and phone number. In case of multiple local members of NC/LC applying together, multiple organisers can be named (eg. one per city). In this case, separate reports may be submitted if the NC/ LC desires.

**365 or 366 days, not a financial year.

In applying, the organisers must consider the IAPS Terms and Conditions and Reimbursement Guidelines. The IAPS Code of Conduct, or an at least equivalent code, must apply at the event. Each of these, along with IAPS’ social media, must be mentioned during the registration for any IAPS event.