SMBE SATELLITE, INTERDISCIPLINARY & REGIONAL MEETINGS
Each year, SMBE funds several SMBE SATELLITE, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND REGIONAL MEETINGS. These meetings are organized and held independently of the SMBE annual meeting.
SMBE is now calling for proposals for meetings and actions to be held between Jan 2025 and Dec 31st 2025. Funds will be awarded on a competitive basis to members of the molecular evolution research community to run meetings on an important, focused, and timely topic of their choice. The number of awards will depend on the quality of proposals, total cost and the budget available.
The EXTENDED deadline for submission of proposals is August 30, 2024. Decisions will be communicated to the applicants mid-September 2024.
List of upcoming and previous SATELLITE/INTERDISCIPLINARY/REGIONAL SMBE meetings:
Upcoming meetings:
http://www.smbe.org/smbe/MEETINGS/SatelliteInterdisciplinaryRegionalMeetings/Schedule.aspx
Please also consult our archive for further information on previous Satellite, Regional and Interdisciplinary meetings:
http://www.smbe.org/smbe/MEETINGS/SatelliteInterdisciplinaryRegionalMeetings/Archive.aspx
Participants of Satellite/Interdisciplinary/Regional meetings are eligible for SMBE Caregiver Award:
https://www.smbe.org/smbe/AWARDS/CaregiverAward.aspx
SMBE SATELLITE MEETINGS
These are small, topically focused meetings with fewer than 100 participants that are organized and held independent of the SMBE annual meeting. In the past five years, SMBE has supported multiple Satellite meetings on diverse topics, a sample of our most recent Satellite meetings include:
● “Ancient DNA beyond allele frequencies” 2024
● “Long-term population resilience” 2024
● “Pathogen Pangenome Evolution” 2024
● “Evolutionary and genomic consequences of drive” 2023
● “De novo gene birth” 2023
● “Molecular evolution in small populations” 2023
● “Fungal pathogens” 2022
● “Molecular Biology and Evolution of Cancer” 2019
● “Towards an integrated concept of adaptation: uniting molecular population genetics and quantitative genetics” 2019
● “Molecular evolution and the cell” 2018
● “Genome Evolution in Pathogen Transmission and Disease” 2018
● “Modern Methods for the study of ancient DNA” 2018
SMBE INTERDISCIPLINARY AND REGIONAL MEETINGS
SMBE will promote interdisciplinary research and extend its actions worldwide by sponsoring (1) joint meetings with meetings of other societies; symposia or plenary lectures on molecular biology and evolution at meetings whose primary focus is not molecular evolution; (2) regional meetings outside the US/Canada, Europe, and Japan; (3) small regional meetings in the US/Canada, Europe, or Japan targeted towards PhD students and postdocs with the purpose of helping them develop their presentation skills and facilitate networking.
Most recent SMBE Regional and Interdisciplinary meetings were:
● “Brazilian Symposium on Evolutionary Biology”, Brazil, 2024
● “Evolutionary Genomics and Bioinformatics”, Taiwan 2024
● “Mexico Population Genomics meeting”, Mexico, June 2023
● “Molecular evolution”, India, 2023
● “PopGeneChina”, China 2022
● “The Role of the Genome in Biological Invasion”, New Zealand , 2022
● Regional Meeting South America, Uruguay, November 2022
● “Israeli Society of Evolutionary Biology inaugural meeting”, Israel, December 2019.
● “Evolutionary genomics at the human-environment interface", Malawi, September 2019 (regional)
● “Population Genomics of Mobile DNA”, USA, 2019 (interdisciplinary)
● “Regional workshop on Computational Biology”, Mexico, 2019
● “Satellite workshop on Genome Evolution in Pathogen Transmission and Disease”, Japan, 2018
GUIDELINES
FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND TOPICS
● Satellite meetings:
o SMBE will provide financial support for up to 80% of the costs, up to a maximum of $40,000 USD per meeting (most meetings are funded at $20,000-$30,000 each). In addition, SMBE will cover the cost of 2 plenary lectures per meeting, with each being able to claim up to a maximum of $3,000 USD per lecture for hotel and intercontinental travel (more than 5 hours of flight) and a maximum of $2,000 USD for "local" travel (i.e., less than 5 hours of flight). Including more than 2 plenary lectures per meeting would require specific justification.
o Timely topics not well represented in symposia of SMBE annual meetings will be favored over those that are already well represented at the annual meetings or previous SMBE satellite meetings.
● Regional and Interdisciplinary meetings:
o SMBE will provide financial support for up to 100% of the costs for the, up to a maximum of $25,000 USD per meeting outside US/Canada, Europe and Japan and up to $10,000 USD for meetings in US/Canada, Europe, or Japan. In addition, SMBE will cover the cost of two plenary lectures per meeting, with each being able to claim up to a maximum of $3,000 USD per lecture for hotel and intercontinental travel (more than 5 hours of flight) and a maximum of $2,000 USD for "local" travel (i.e., less than 5 hours of flight).
o Meetings/symposia/lectures will be selected based on the scientific importance, timeliness and anticipated impact on the fields of molecular biology, genome biology, and evolution.
o Proposals for meetings to be organized in geographical areas that have been traditionally under-represented in SMBE meetings (annual or satellite) are especially encouraged.
Eligibility:
● At least one of the organizers must be a member of SMBE. Current SMBE Council members, or members who have rotated-off Council in the last calendar year, are not eligible to serve as meeting organizers or co-organizers.
Expectations:
● A detailed projected budget, including the expected number of participants, travel/food/lodging costs, and registration fees must be submitted with the application. Please note that SMBE funds cannot be used for indirect costs or overhead costs.
● Proposals should strive to be inclusive and outline strategies for hybrid/virtual meetings. All talks are expected to be made available to the SMBE community as recordings.
● Events will be named “SMBE Satellite meeting on XYZ”, or “SMBE Interdisciplinary meeting/symposium/lecture” or “SMBE Regional meeting in XYZ(Geographic Location)”. Meeting organizers should host a website for the meeting that highlights the main theme as well as the program, including the speaker list. This website should stay active for at least 3 years after the meeting date. Symposium and lecture organizers should provide a link to be advertised on the SMBE webpage. The sponsorship of the SMBE must be mentioned in all pre-meeting publicity and in the meeting program.
● Meetings must be standalone events, should not form a symposium or other part of a larger meeting and should not immediately follow or precede any other meeting at a given location.
● We expect the proposals to promote diversity and gender equity in the organizing committee and in the selection of speakers and participants.
Evaluation of proposals:
● Proposals will be received and reviewed by two SMBE Council Members that will make a recommendation to SMBE Council, whose decision is final. The SMBE Council may decide not to support any meetings in any particular year. The selection committee may contact the proposers for clarifications during the reviewing process and a timely response will be required. A proposal that was unsuccessful can be re-submitted upon consultation with the selection committee (contacts provided below).
Post-meeting expectations:
● Organizers will be required to submit a copy of the final program and a short (~2 page) summary of the workshop/symposium/meeting organization and financial aspects to SMBE Council within 3 months of the event. The summary should be sent to the executive administrator of the society Lulu Stader (smbe.contact@gmail.com).
● Organizers will be required to submit a brief scientific report on their meeting for publication on the SMBE website or, alternatively, in one of the SMBE journals after consultation with the editorial board. A concise financial report outlining the use of funds is also expected but will not be published.
● Please note that 90% of the funds will be transferred to the organizers at the point of acceptance of the proposal (or as soon as needed thereafter), whereas the remaining 10% will be made available upon receiving the scientific and financial reports.
● Unused funds (e.g. for plenary speaker travel allowance) should be transferred back to SMBE within 3 months of the event.
PROPOSALS INSTRUCTIONS
Satellite meeting/workshop proposals should be sent by email to the executive administrator of the society Lulu Stader (smbe.contact@gmail.com) and will be considered by the selection committee comprising council members Christian Landry (Christian.Landry@bio.ulaval.ca) and Juliana A. Vianna (jvianna@uc.cl ).
The EXTENDED deadline for submission of proposals is August 30, 2024.
1. Provide the name(s), gender, career stage, and full contact information for all organizer(s) and the name of the institution(s) involved.
Universities/organizations providing additional financial support, if involved, should also be listed. If additional funding is being simultaneously applied for, please state the status of that request as well. Please specify organizers who are SMBE members.
2. Meeting summary (4 single-spaced pages max). Describe the scientific rationale for your proposed meeting. In doing so, be sure to clearly state (1) the importance and timeliness of the topic; (2) the anticipated short-term and long-term impacts of your meeting on the fields of molecular biology, genome biology, and evolution; (3) the proposed structure of your meeting (e.g., lectures only, lectures + hands-on training sessions, contributed talks, poster sessions, etc.); (4) an indicative list of proposed invited speakers including their gender, geographical origin and career stage; (5) for satellite meetings only: why a small meeting format is preferable to a symposium at the SMBE annual meeting; (6) for interdisciplinary actions only: the relevance of mixing communities (for joint meetings, symposia and plenary lectures at non-evolution meetings); (7) for regional meetings outside the US/Canada, Europe, and Japan only: the relevance of promoting actions in specific regions; (8) for small regional meetings in the US/Canada, Europe, and Japan only: the extent and nature of student/postdoctoral fellow involvement; (9) for regional meetings: considerations of current COVID related travel restrictions, if they apply.
3. Financial summary. Please summarize your financial request, including estimated total budget, registration costs (if any), travel support for speakers / trainees, costs of the venue (if any), and details of non-SMBE funds to be used.