The Australian Mathematical Society sponsors Special Interest Meetings on specialist topics at diverse geographical locations around Australia. This activity is seen as a means of generating a stronger professional profile for the Society within the Australian mathematical community, and of stimulating better communication between mathematicians with similar interests who are scattered throughout the country.

These grants are intended for once-off meetings and not for regular meetings. Such meetings with a large student involvement are encouraged. If it is intended to hold regular meetings on a specific subject area, the organisers should consider forming a Special Interest Group of the Society. If there is widespread interest in a subject area, there is also the mechanism for forming a Division within the Society.

Application process

Applications are considered twice a year, at the start of June and the start of December. For 2012 and 2013, closing dates are

• 1 December 2012
• 5 June 2013
• 4 December 2013.

If funding is being sought from both AustMS and AMSI, a single application should be made at http://www.amsi.org.au/component/content/article/881.

If funding is not being sought from AMSI, please use the application form: Support_form_2012.doc (37 kb), .pdf (42 kb) and send it to the secretary.

Secretary, Australian Mathematical Society

Assoc. Prof. Peter Stacey
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086

email: Secretary@austms.org.au

Rules governing the approval of grants:

1. each Special Interest Meeting must be clearly advertised as an activity supported by the Australian Mathematical Society;
2. the organizer must be a member of the Society;
3. the meeting must be open to all members of the Society;

4. registration fees should be charged, with at least a 20% reduction for members of the Society. A further reduction should be made for members of the Society who pay the reduced rate subscription (i.e. research students, those not in full time employment and retired members);

5. a financial statement must be submitted on completion of the Meeting;
6. any profits up to the value of the grant are to be returned to the Australian Mathematical Society;
7. on completion, a Meeting Report should be prepared, in a form suitable for publication in the Australian Mathematical Society gazette, and sent to the Secretary;
8. a list of those attending, their AustMS membership status, and a copy of the conference Proceedings (if applicable) must be submitted to the Society;
9. only in exceptional circumstances will support be provided near the time of the Annual Conference for a Special Interest Meeting being held in another city;
10. a grant application must include a detailed budget;
11. a grant application should be lodged no later than six months before the meeting;
12. the meeting should be advertised on the Society's web pages and also in the gazette.

In its consideration of applications, Council will take into account locations around Australia of the various mathematical meetings during the period in question. Preference will be given to Meetings of at least two days duration. Council has the discretion to specify the part of the budget being supported by the AustMS, and against which any repayments should be calculated.

The allocation for any one Meeting in 2012 will be up to $(2000+300n), where n is the number of AustMS members registered for and attending the meeting, with an upper limit of about $6000.

[Approved by Council, 2011.]