Local Groups Funding Scheme

Please note that all sponsorship requests must come via the Local Groups Funding Scheme, which must be applied to by your institution's Local Groups Representative (LGR). If your institution does not currently have an LGR and you are interested in taking on the role, please contact the BNA office to express interest.

The aims of the funding scheme are to enable Local Groups (LGs) to benefit current members of the BNA and also recruit new members. All proposed uses for the funding must be able to demonstrate how they will achieve both these aims. Creative ideas for activities that fulfil the Objects of the BNA and engage with as many people as possible are looked on favourably.

Such activities can include but are not restricted to:

• training or career opportunities in the field of neuroscience for BNA members
• opportunities to foster translational neuroscience, or otherwise connect academics and clinicians
• public engagement projects
• initiatives to build bridges between departments or institutions and facilitate collaboration
• campaigns on local expressions of neuroscience issues that broad sections of the local membership feel strongly about and want to win specific change from a local decision-maker on
• an individual or a series of seminars*
• initiatives that support neuroscientists relating to wider issues of neuroscience e.g. using animals in research, neuroethics, working with the media
• initiatives to recruit new members to the BNA

*Any application for supporting seminars should also include how the activity will directly benefit BNA members and have impact beyond those attending e.g. via live-streaming, associated public engagement event, etc. There should be strong justification for requests that fund purely a stand-alone seminar or seminar series.

Other key pieces of information:

• Applications can be made throughout the calendar year, but the funding period runs from October–September. If the funding pot is depleted due to a high volume of successful applications, you are advised to place your application after the end of September, at which point the new cycle will have begun.
• Applications must be submitted through the relevant LG Representative (LGR). Please contact your LGR before putting an application together
• Collaborative proposals submitted by two or more LGRs are welcomed (and funding can be pooled between co-applicants)
• There is a limit of one individual or collaborative application per LG each academic year
• There is a maximum of £1000 awarded per LG per year, whether via an individual or collaborative application (e.g. a collaborative application involving three Local Groups may apply for a maximum of £3000)

Costs that can be supported include but are not limited to:

• Speaker travel expenses
• Materials for public engagement e.g. publicity
• Training materials
• Costs relating to participation by patient and/or public representatives

Costs that cannot be supported include:

• Any costs ordinarily met by BNA members’ institute/university for basic facilities e.g. room hire, porters, AV technicians
• Remuneration of seminar speakers or BNA members
• Any activities already available to local BNA members via their university/institute
• Disproportionate / unreasonable requests with respect to hospitality or subsistence

All proposals must be in line with the BNA’s Equality and Diversity Policy, which can be summarised as a commitment towards equal opportunities, non-discriminatory procedures and practices, with no biases of any kind related to age, background, ethnic origin, education, socioeconomics, personal situation, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or any combination of these. For example, all-male speaker lists will be rejected automatically as a matter of policy.

All applications must include an outline budget.

Selection process

Applications are selected on a competitive process.  They are judged on quality and the extent to which they are deemed to meet the aims of the funding scheme (see above), and their success or amount of funding is not influenced by the size of the Local Group (either in terms of institution or number of BNA members). It is unlikely that all applications will be successful.

Submissions are reviewed by a sub-committee of the BNA Council. The sub-committee is chaired by the President-Elect, and includes the LGR co-ordinator plus two further members of the Council or Committee, typically the Treasurer and the Education and Engagement Representative.

Report

Successful applicants must provide a short report on how the funding has been used. Failure to do so will have a bearing on future decisions to support applications submitted by the LGR. The report must include:

• Evidence of actively benefiting current members, including quantitative data on attendance and demographics
• Evidence of actively promoting new members to join, including quantitative data
• Evidence of promoting the BNA

Reports should be no longer than 500 words (not including survey content), and should be sent to the BNA Office at office@bna.org.uk. The use of photographs, quantitative data and multimedia for online publication is encouraged. Reports, in whole or in part, may be published in the BNA's print or online publications.

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