The Mind Association currently has two schemes to support those wishing to organise conferences:
- The first is a major one of £2000, with a guarantee against loss of a further £500. The guarantee against loss is discretionary and subject to receipt of accounts.
- The second is a minor conference grant scheme of £600, normally to contribute to travel and accommodation costs for speakers.
The Association has a policy of favouring open conferences over closed ones, and encourages sensitivity to ethnic and gender diversity. Conference grants are normally for conferences held in the British Isles. Applications should state what other sources of funding have been sought, including those from the host department. If the host department is not supporting the conference financially, applicants are invited to explain why not.
Letters of application, describing the aims and purposes of the proposed conference, as well as details of the costing, should be sent direct to the Secretary of the Association, Dr Miranda Fricker, Department of Philosophy, Birkbeck College, Malet St, London WC1E 7HX. Email: (m.fricker[at]bbk.ac.uk).
Deadlines for applications are as follows: Major awards, nine full months before the date at which the conference begins; Minor awards, six full months before that date. Late applications may, under certain circumstances, be considered: applicants are advised to contact the Hon. Secretary.
Conditions on the Acceptance of Major Conference Grants
Recipients of Major Grants are required to give the Mind Association first refusal on any volume of essays arising in whole or in part from the proceedings of the conference. The Mind Association collaborates with Oxford University Press on the selective publication of such volumes in its Occasional Series. The Association and the Press aim to maintain high levels of quality and thematic coherence in these volumes, and all contributions are individually refereed.
Royalties on such volumes are paid to the Association, but volume editors are paid a fee out of these royalties in recognition of the considerable work involved in seeing the book through to publication.
Conference organizers who wish to put forward a collection of papers for the series are advised to contact the Secretary of the Association before the conference, and to secure the agreement of their contributors at an early stage. Normally a full set of draft papers, including a draft introduction, needs to be assessed before a publishing agreement can be made. Only in exceptional cases, of which prior notice must be given, will the Press consider a paper that has been previously published or accepted for publication elsewhere.