First, the scientific merit of a proposal is evaluated by the EC, taking the comments and advice of Commission and Division Presidents into consideration. An IAU sponsored meeting should have a well-defined scientific theme, be scheduled at a propitious time for significant progress in the field, and be of interest to young researchers as well as senior experts. After reviewing the scientific content of a proposal, the EC may decide to move the meeting to a different category from that proposed, e.g. from Symposium to Colloquium or vice versa.
Second, since the IAU embraces all major fields in astronomy, the IAU meeting programme should maintain a broad and balanced scope and cover the main active fields at appropriate intervals. Accordingly, even scientifically strong proposals in the same or largely overlapping fields cannot be approved at very short intervals.
Third, given the international nature of the Union, IAU sponsored meetings must be internationally oriented. This implies a well-balanced geographical distribution of both organisers and key speakers; normally, substantially less than half of the proposed SOC and/or key speakers should come from any single country.
For Regional and Co-sponsored Meetings, less restrictive criteria apply. As outlined above, the stimulation of contacts between (especially young) astronomers in the region concerned is an important function of the Regional Meetings. Accordingly, much broader subject areas are acceptable than for Symposia. In Co-sponsored Meetings, main responsibility for the scientific content and organisation of the meeting lies with the main sponsoring Scientific Union, and the IAU assumes only an advisory role on the relevant aspects of the overall programme.
Proposals for the distribution of IAU Travel Grants to individual participants are made by the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) and sent to the Assistant General Secretary (AGS) for approval. IAU priority is to support qualified scientists to whom few or no other means of support are available, e.g. colleagues from countries in economic difficulties and young scientists. Also, a reasonable geographical distribution is expected: Normally, no more than 50% of the funds should be allocated to a single country or region. Moreover, the IAU support should preferably carry significant weight in ensuring the participation of the selected grantees, rather than adding comfort for colleagues whose attendance is already assured.
Within these general guidelines, it is left to the scientific judgment of the SOC whether to allocate funds in a few major grants to ensure the participation of key speakers, or broaden attendance at the meeting by supporting several participants, maintaining the overall scientific standard of the meeting as the primary criterion.
The recommendations of the SOC should be sent to the AGS (e-mail is accepted and preferred), specifying for each person: Name, nationality, full mailing address, e-mail address when useful, amount of proposed grant (in Swiss Francs), place from which journey will be made, and title and nature of contribution (review talk, thesis presentation, ...). A sample application form is found below, summarising the required information; use of the form itself is optional. It will help to avoid difficult last-minute reallocations if the SOC verifies that grantees expect to be able to attend with the proposed amounts of support. The SOC recommendation should reach the AGS:
The normal administrative procedure is to transfer the entire IAU grant to the LOC bank account. Individual grants are then paid to each recipient upon arrival and registration at the meeting. This procedure has been found safe and convenient, especially in accommodating the occasional, but inevitable cases of late cancellations. Currency conversions are made at the official ICSU exchange rates in force at that time.
There are cases, however, when a cash advance is needed for a participant to be able to travel to the meeting at all. Such cases should be argued in reasonable detail to the SOC and AGS, and individual cheques may then be sent directly from the Paris Secretariat. These procedures are explained in the individual grant letters.