Royal Institute of Philosophy Terms and Conditions for School event funding.
- Conference funding is for speakers’ expenses, general administration and advertising costs. This would, of course, include accommodation and meals for the speakers where appropriate. The Institute’s financial commitment is limited to the agreement made by email. Funds can be made available in advance or after the event, in either case on receipt of an invoice sent to the Manging Director.
- The topic agreed for the conference may not be changed except by consent of the Academic Director of the Institute. The detailed arrangements of the conference programme are, however, entirely at the discretion of the host. In keeping with its own remit, the Institute aims to sponsor conferences on topics which might be of interest to people outside departments of philosophy, and speakers should take care to make themselves understood.
- Conference organisers are required to follow the BPA/SWIP Good Practice recommendations:
When drawing up a list of potential invited speakers, take reasonable steps to ensure that women are well represented; see the Good Practice website for more information and advice.
Where possible, consult the women on your list before fixing the date of the event, to ensure that women speakers are not just invited but will actually attend.
Women may well be at lower-prestige institutions and/or in lower-ranked jobs. (E.g. in the UK, only 12% of professors in Russell Group philosophy departments are women.) They may therefore have less access to institutional funding. If you cannot fund all speakers, ask bigger-name speakers whether they can fund their own travel (they can always say no), freeing up resources for less well-known speakers.
Organisers should ensure that male and female speakers are treated equally on publicity material and the conference programme (e.g. to avoid the situation where a male speaker is described as ‘Senior Lecturer in philosophy at …’ but a female speaker, also an SL, is described as ‘teaches philosophy at …’; or where the male speaker’s title (Dr, Prof.) is included by the female speaker’s isn’t).
Investigate whether the provision of childcare facilities for the duration of the event is possible. Many universities have crèches on or near campus, which may be able to offer a rate for speakers at larger events. For larger events, if campus facilities are not available consider hosting the event at a hotel that offers childcare and babysitting services. Consider setting aside funding to subsidise the use of childcare facilities by speakers; see the Good Practice website for more information and advice.
There are further details here.
4. Conference organisers are also asked to consider accessibility. The BPA has guidance here which might be helpful too.
5. The event must be known and advertised as a Royal Institute of Philosophy event. It is expected that it will be widely advertised, particularly to people outside philosophy departments.
6. It is assumed that the Institute will be the main sponsor of the conference, though it may be appropriate to look for additional financial assistance elsewhere. The Institute must be a consenting party to any co-sponsoring arrangement and reserves its right to withdraw sponsorship.
7. The Institute asks for a short report on the conference after it’s been held – no more than a page is needed – which will be passed on to our Executive Committee. Organisers are asked to report on topics addressed, by whom, and anything else about the event that might be of interest to the committee. If possible this should be sent to us by the end of March.