Local Groups Funding

Local Groups of BNA members are able to each claim up to £1000 annually to support their activities, coordinated by their LGRs and LGSRs. A Local Group has full control over its projects; which are developed by them to meet a need that its members have raised.

Funded activities will meet needs or interests felt widely and deeply among a local neuroscience community so as to engage as many people as possible. The aims of the funding scheme are to enable Local Groups to benefit their members, address issues affecting their members (and would-be members), and to increase and expand the Local Group's membership to more fully represent the breadth of its local neuroscience community. All funding applications must demonstrate how they will achieve these three aims. Such activities might include (but are not limited to):

  • the development of a meeting or structure to connect local neuroscientists across sectors (academic, clinical, commercial, etc.)
  • initiatives to build bridges between departments or institutions and facilitate collaboration where it is currently impaired
  • work on local expressions of BNA policy campaigns that broad sections of the local membership feel strongly about and want to win specific change from a local decision-maker on
  • projects to connect the public with research in either direction, for example via public engagement projects or patient advocacy
  • initiatives that support best practice relating to wider issues of neuroscience e.g. workshops on using animals in research, neuroethics, working with the media
  • initiatives to support career development and reduce attrition, e.g. an event connecting students with local employers across different sectors

Other key information:

  • Applications can be made throughout the calendar year, but the annual funding period runs from October–September. The annual deadline for applications will therefore be the end of August. If the funding pot for a funding period 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 can only be made by a Local Group Representative (LGR) in collaboration with other BNA members in the Local Group. If you have an idea for a project but are not an LGR, please get in touch with your LGR to bring the idea to the rest of your local BNA membership.
  • Collaborative proposals submitted by two or more LGRs are welcomed (and funding can be pooled between co-applicants).
  • There is a maximum of £1000 awarded per Local Group 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).

Your application must an include a budget outline. Costs that can be supported include but are not limited to:

  • Room hire
  • Materials for public engagement
  • Materials for campaigning, e.g. flyers, posters, banners, placards
  • Materials for local promotion of the Local Group itself, e.g. flyers, posters
  • Catering
  • Speaker travel expenses
  • Training materials
  • Costs relating to participation by patient and/or public representatives

Costs that cannot be supported include:

  • Remuneration of seminar speakers or BNA members
  • Support for preexisting initiatives or activities already available to local BNA members via their institution, or via another independent network or organisation (e.g. a student society) – activities must be novel, based on a broad need of the local neuroscience community ideally across career stages and sectors, and organised by current BNA members and for current and would-be BNA members (i.e. with an aim to bring more of the local community into the Local Group as BNA members)
  • Disproportionate or unreasonable requests with respect to hospitality or subsistence

All proposals must be in line with the BNA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 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.