SMBE, through the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) task force, aims to address systemic racism, sexism, colonialism and other exclusion in our SMBE society. With this in mind, a budget of up to $25,000 per year will be dedicated to initiatives that help reduce inequities in molecular biology and evolution research. The task force would therefore like to invite members of SMBE to propose initiatives that would take place in the year 2023/2024. Examples of initiatives could include, but are not limited to, workshops, symposia, training opportunities, stand-alone featured talks, or inequity data collection in particular groups, countries, or regions (to name a few). If you are interested in knowing what projects have previously been funded, the 2022 initiatives will each give a talk at the SMBE IDEA symposium in Ferrara this year. You can read their abstracts here. We especially encourage initiatives that could potentially be sustainable beyond the funded year. We welcome proposals that require the full or only a portion of the budget, although expenses should in every case be justified. Special emphasis will be given to projects that could have an imminent positive impact on the membership of the SMBE society.

This form allows applicants to submit their proposal. You will find specific information for each requirement below. The general guidelines are as follows:

At least one of the organisers must be a member of SMBE. Please note that students from underrepresented regions may apply for free membership by contacting SMBE directly. More information on how to do this is found in the SMBE webpage under membership: https://www.smbe.org/smbe/MEMBERSHIP.aspx

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY 25th AUGUST 2023

• 25th of August: Initial description (more information regarding format and requirements is below) of the proposed idea must be submitted via the present form. ATTENTION: Regardless of the number of organisers, each proposal should be submitted only once. Once submitted, you can no longer edit this form. You can choose to have the form sent to your email by clicking "send me a copy of my responses" at the bottom of this page.

• 15th of September: Initial submissions will be reviewed and pre-selected by the IDEA task force and candidates will be notified with a decision. You will still be notified if your proposal was not pre-selected.

• 13th of October: If your initial submission is pre-selected, organisers will be informed and will be expected to submit a full project plan by email to smbe.idea@gmail.com. This must include a budget and time plan, as well as relevance and expected short and long-term impacts of the initiative on inclusion, diversity, equity and/or access. You will receive more information regarding the requirements for the full proposal if your project was pre-selected.

• 2nd of November: Successful proposals will be notified. SMBE treasury will be notified of the selected proposals so that the funds can be transferred as soon as possible.

• All deadlines are 5pm local time.

• Organisers of successful proposals are expected to submit a report (around 2 pages) to the SMBE IDEA task force (smbe.idea@gmail.com) within 3 months of its completion.

• Successful proposals will have the opportunity to present their progress at the IDEA symposium during the 2024 SMBE meeting - however we are unable to provide travel funding at this time.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at smbe.idea@gmail.com

Questions in the google form sheet:

1)    Name of the proposal

Choose a title for your proposed project

2)    Organiser information

Write the full names, affiliation and contact details (preferably email) of all organisers. Add one person per line and triple check that we have the correct information.

If not otherwise stated, we will contact all listed organisers with the results of our deliberation, if you have instead chosen one or several of you to be corresponding organisers, make this clear to us by adding <CORRESPONDING> next to the name of the people we should contact.

Add a <*> next to the names of the organisers who are SMBE members (we require at least one organiser to be an SMBE member!).

3)    Additional financial support (OPTIONAL)

If other organisations or universities are providing or will provide additional financial support for your project, list them here.

4)    Short description of the project

This text should not exceed 800 words and should describe your project and how it will help reduce inequities in molecular biology and evolution research.