Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds
Submission of subsidy requests
The Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) announces the next deadline for subsidy requests:
Monday, April 1, 2024, at 12:00 (noon)
Only requests for activities starting on or after May 1, 2024 will be considered. The LKBF is open for requests for subsidies for the following categories: 1) conference and work visits world-wide, 2) work visits of foreign guests to a Dutch astronomical institute, 3) organization of in-person and virtual conferences, and 4) initiatives to facilitate new methods of scientific interaction.
In 2024, the deadlines are April 1 and October 1. The LKBF Board meets the same month (i.e. April and October) to discuss the requests, and allocations will be announced by the end of this month. For each deadline, only travel or conferences starting the month after are eligible for a subsidy, so for the deadline of April 1, only travel/conference starting on or after May 1 is eligible, and for the deadline on October 1, only travel/conference starting on or after November 1 is eligible. Awarded subsidies are valid for 1 year. If the conference is postponed, the subsidy can still be used (without further notification to the LKBF) as long as the conference starts before 30 April, 2025. If an awarded work visit needs to be postponed, again the subsidy can be used, as long as the work visit starts before 30 April, 2025. If your conference (or visit) is postponed until after 30 April 2025, please apply again for the round with a deadline of April 1, 2025. Subsidies awarded in the previous round (round 2023.2, October 2023) are still valid until October 31, 2024.
Subsidy requests must be prepared and submitted via the electronic system accessible via the website. To request a subsidy, please use the electronic submission form at: http://lkbf.strw.leidenuniv.nl
You can select the round as you log in. The default round is apr2024, but please make sure, once logged in, that you submit your request to this round, it will otherwise not be considered.
Then please follow these steps:
If you have used the system before, you can reuse the account. Earlier request are visible in this call only after selecting previous round. Make sure your new request is done while the apr2024 round is selected. If you use this system for the first time, create a new account and log in with your account.
Go to 'User profile' and complete your information, in particular the Staff Status and for PhD applicants also the Supervisor Email.
Go to 'Subsidy requests' and under 'Add new request' select the type of subsidy you want to request and click 'Add'.
Fill out the necessary information to complete the request. You can save your work by clicking 'Submit changes'. You can submit your request by clicking 'Finalize'. You will receive an e-mail that your request has been received.
You can edit saved-but-not-yet-submitted requests from the 'Subsidy requests' page. Submitted (finalized) requests can be viewed but not edited. After you finalize & submit a request, your institute manager will be asked automatically to approve the request. For PhD student, your supervisor will also be asked automatically to approve the request.
Report problems to lkbf@strw.leidenuniv.nl and please also direct your questions to the same email address.
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Guidelines:
All professional astronomers affiliated with one of the astronomical institutes in the Netherlands can request a subsidy - if you are uncertain whether this applies to you, please contact lkbf@strw.leidenuniv.nl to discuss your situation.
Subsidies
can be requested for
(1) Personal travel, either a conference
visit or work visits abroad
- more than 249 euro, to a maximum
of 50% of the budgeted costs
-
a personal trip (either a conference visit or a work visits) is only
supported once per year, per person. This means that if a subsidy
for a conference or work visit has been awarded in one round, you
are automatically excluded for the following round, and can submit
again for the round, 1 year later.
(2)
work visits by someone from abroad to the Netherlands, again once
per year, per person.
- more than 249 euro, to a maximum of
50% of the budgeted costs
(3) organizing an in-person or
virtual conference hosted by a Dutch Institute
(4) initiatives
to facilitate new methods of scientific interaction
For subsidies of less than 250 euro, please contact your local LKBF board member (see web site), institute director or financial manager.
Neither travel associated with projects, closed meetings, nor observing trips are supported by the LKBF. Excluded are also visits to synchrotron facilities or trips to telescopes to install instrumentation. Observing trips are expected to be paid by the institutes, while travel for installation of instrumentation is expected to be included in the project funding. Also note that, for requests in the context of technical and instrumentation projects, a direct relation with the astronomical use must be demonstrated.
The LKBF will not support trips with air travel that are 4 days or less, and the LKBF will not support air travel for trips that can be done by ground based travel (currently travel that takes shorter than 6h by train is the norm).
The LKBF will favor collaborative initiatives with researchers in Indonesia and other developing countries.
The LKBF will favor work visits and colloquium tours over conference trips, combined trips are a sensible use of resources.
The LKBF will favor to support hybrid conference initiatives.
The LKBF subsidies can be used to compensate for CO2 footprint.
Applicants who have a responsibility to provide care (e.g. for young families) can claim an exception to some of the constraints
Subsidy requests are personal and subsidies cannot be transferred. If, for whatever reason, you cannot use the subsidy, it should be returned to the LKBF and the secretary/treasurer should be notified without delay.
The LKBF only supports requests for conferences that a rooted in the Netherlands. If a conference is already largely supported by an organization that specifically supports conferences, like is the case for the Lorentz Center, no further subsidies will be provided by the LKBF.
For ʹinitiatives to facilitate new methods of scientific interactionʹ the following considerations should be taken into account:
The LKBF will support initiatives to facilitate new methods of scientific interaction. This includes contributions towards setting up such an initiative and contributions towards maintenance cost. Sponsored costs include both manpower as well as hardware to initiate and maintain the initiative.
The initiative shall be carried by a professional astronomers affiliated with one of the astronomical institutes in the Netherlands.
The initiative shall be open to a wide (international) community
The initiative shall provide recognizable exposure of astronomy in the Netherlands
The proposal shall clearly outline the goals of the initiative, how the initiative is implemented, the costs for which funding is requested, as well as other funding sources that have been received or requested.
Subsidies can be requested for initiative of more than 249 euro, to a maximum of 50% of the budgeted costs. Although there is currently no formal cap on the subsidy that can be requested, the LKBF will likely not be able to support requests significantly exceeding 10 kEUR.
A reminder: Applicants will claim the entire costs of the travel at their institutes. The details of how these claims should be made will be provided in the award letter in the case of a successful application. In some cases this may not be possible (e.g. emeriti or persons not connected to an institute), in these cases individual arrangements will be made - please contact lkbf@strw.leidenuniv.nl upon a successful grant application to arrange this.
Dr.
R. Stuik
Secretary
Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds
p/a
Sterrewacht Leiden
Postbus 9513
2300 RA Leiden