ICO Cosponsorship and Endorsement of Conferences and Schools

ICO COSPONSORSHIP AND ENDORSEMENT OF CONFERENCES AND SCHOOLS

INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

Application deadlines are April 15 and October 15 of each year. The applications must be submitted to the ICO Associate Secretary by a deadline that is at least 12 months prior to the event and before the first announcement.

[ICO Co-Sponsorship Form> (Word Document)

A - General conditions

1 - ICO provides sponsorship and endorsement to international conferences and schools - typically, those with at least 30 % of the attendees and at least 50 % of the Program Committee from outside the host territory. "Event" in the forthcoming refers to conference or school. A companion document to this one gives the information and guidelines for events directly generated by ICO or in particularly close cooperation with ICO (i.e., ICO Congresses, ICO Topical Meetings, ICO Regional Meetings, ICO Schools).

2 - ICO participation implies in all cases that

the ICO Bureau perceives that the meeting will be of a good scientific quality and that the timing and venue are appropriate;
the ICO Territorial Committee of the territory where the event is to be held approves the project; the organizers should confirm compliance with the general principle of "free movement of scientists" as defined by the International Council for Science (ICSU, http://www.icsu.org/) in the booklet "Advice to Organizers of International Scientific Conferences". The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP, http://www.iupap.org/), in which ICO is Affiliated Commission 1, adheres to the declarations of ICSU. In essence, the host territory must guarantee that a bona fide scientist or engineer of any nationality or citizenship may attend. It is not sufficient to make such a guarantee only for persons from territories recognized by the host territory. Any failure to honor a guarantee is reported by ICO to ICSU through IUPAP.

3 - ICO encourages meetings in all new areas of optics and meetings designed to fill specific needs, including regional development of optics. At the same time, ICO would like to avoid the unnecessary proliferation of conferences; section 6 of the Questionnaire should therefore be answered carefully, explaining why this particular conference should be held.

4 - Industrial participation in the Program Committee and in the Organizing Committee is usually required.

B - Special conditions for ICO Cosponsored events and for ICO Endorsed events

5 - The distinction between the two categories "ICO Cosponsored Event" and "ICO Endorsed Event" is outlined in the following points. The ICO Bureau makes the decision but organizers are welcome to propose a category.

6 - ICO Consponsored conferences must follow IUPAP's policy on conference fees. For conferences held in 2005, the upper limit is 410 Euros, where proceedings are included and "substantially lower" otherwise (the figure is adjusted periodically). For ICO Endorsed events, exceptions to that rule may be made.

7 - In ICO Cosponsored events, ICO must be associated from the beginning, and usually no later than 18 months in advance.

8 - In ICO Cosponsored events, the ICO Associate Secretary (in charge of meetings) is ex officio a member of the Organizing Committee and should be kept regularly informed of the progress of the organization.

9 - In ICO Cosponsored events, the ICO Bureau designates one member to represent it in the Program Committee. For ICO Endorsed events, exceptions to that rule may be made.

10 - For ICO Cosponsored events, the organizers are always welcome to use the channel of the ICO Territorial Committee mailing list to distribute information.

11 - For ICO Cosponsored events, the organizers are requested to send free proceedings of the conference to countries where optics development requires special support; a list of addresses appropriate for this purpose selected by ICO will be provided by ICO. For ICO Endorsed events, the same action is recommended. The number of copies requested is of the order of 20.

12 - All ICO Cosponsored and ICO Endorsed events are listed in the section "Forthcoming events with ICO participation" on the ICO website and in the ICO Newsletter. In addition, organizers of ICO Cosponsored events are welcome to provide the ICO Secretariat with a 1000 to 2000 words article, if possible with an illustration, for further publicity in the ICO Newsletter. Since the responsibility for the publication rests on it, ICO has the liberty to slightly edit the text to adapt it to the general style and to the space available.

13 - The use of the ICO logo in documents concerning ICO Cosponsored events is desired; it is permitted in ICO Endorsed events.

14 - There may be ICO financial participation in ICO Cosponsored events, in the form of a grant, a loan, or a participation in the risks. ICO participation is an ICO Bureau decision. There is usually no ICO financial participation in ICO Endorsed events.

Notes:

participation in the financial risks means an immediate loan that can be converted in part or in totality into a grant if the event runs a deficit. ICO accepts to take the first risk. In case of a surplus, however, ICO receives a share of the surplus (for details, see ICO Green Book: Rules and Codes of Practice).
in the 33 events held between ICO-19 and ICO-20 (both inclusive) with ICO participation, ICO was financially involved in 23 cases and assumed a risk twice (in both ICO Congresses). A typical amount of an ICO grant for a major ICO event is US$ 1500-7000, and for an ICO Cosponsored event about US$ 1000-3000. In most of the recent cases, the ICO grant was specifically awarded for the purpose of helping identified registrants from less favored countries.