Purpose: The Faculty of Engineering understands that staff are often involved in the hosting and organisation of conferences and that this plays an important role in service to the profession and discipline as well as raising the profile of UNSW when the conferences are hosted in Sydney. It is also understood that seed funding for initial payment of items such as venue and hotel deposits can be difficult to obtain. The purpose of this policy is to outline the circumstances under which the Faculty of Engineering will contribute to seed funding of conferences and the conditions that are applied to such funds.

Procedure:
1. Seed funding of up to $20,000 will be provided to staff members with leading roles in organisation of conferences to be hosted at UNSW under the following conditions:

A. an appropriate business case is provided outlining the size, scope and the timing of the conference as well as the financial plan that has been developed. As a minimum requirement, this business case should outline why the seed funding is required, what other seed funding has been obtained and the schedule for repayment of the seed funding to the Faculty. The purpose of this is to allow the seed funding to be recycled and used by other potential conference organisers. In the event of conference running at a loss, rendering the organisers of the conference unable to return the seed funding, a detailed financial statement along with the circumstances leading to the loss shall be submitted to the Faculty.

B. indication that part or all of the conference will be held on site at UNSW or in an approved venue outside UNSW, and that the UNSW logo and the Faculty of Engineering appear prominently on materials relating to the conference.

C. if the conference is run through the UNSW financial system it is appropriately registered as a commercial activity with the legal office if required (see http://www.policy.unsw.edu.au/guideline/commercial_activities.htm)

D. the conference topic area is aligned with Faculty of Engineering Research Strengths

E. the conference is a highly regarded conference in its field of research

2. Applications with appropriate supporting documentation addressing the above conditions and Head of School approval of the staff involvement in the conference should be forwarded to the Associate Dean Research (L.Poolewarren@unsw.edu.au) for approval.