Skemp Fund

The Richard Skemp Memorial Support Fund was established to provide financial support for prospective PME participants from under-represented countries or countries in which insufficient financial support is available and who do not have personal means for self-financing in order to allow them to attend the conference. 

The spirit of the fund is to make participation possible for those who might not be able to attend for financial reasons. Where applicants are from, where they are living, where they are working, where they are currently studying, as well as the conditions of their employment and studies are important factors when making decisions on the applications. 

The funding amount spent each year should consist of the donations from the same year and some of the Skemp reserve fund. The PME International Committee aims to maintain the Skemp fund in order to ensure support in years where fewer or smaller donations are received. Donations to the Skemp Fund other than those from conference participants are much welcome. 

Eligibility 

Applicants for a grant from the Fund will be considered from those who are (or who become) members of PME and who submit a proposal to be the presenting author of one of the following: 

• an Oral Communication (OC),
• a Poster Presentation (PP),
• a Research Report (RR), including those in a Colloquium,
• a Publication Report (PR),
• a presentation at a Research Forum (RF) on invitation of its coordinators, or
• coordination of a Working Group (WG) or a RF. 

In general, 

• only one of the presenting authors of a particular proposal will be eligible to apply for a grant; and
• those who have already received a grant on a prior occasion will not normally receive an additional grant. 

For more information, please consult the application form (see below).  

How to apply 

Applications for a Skemp Fund grant should be made at the same time as proposals are submitted for presentation at the conference. Only applicants who have had their presentation proposal accepted by the IPC are eligible for a grant. No applications will be considered after March 1, 2026. 

You can find on the IGPME website.  

When you have submitted your application form, you will receive a confirmative e-mail that it has reached us, and that your application will be considered. If you do not receive such an e-mail, please contact the Administrative Manager of PME ().  

Please note that you will have to become a member of PME in order to apply for a Skemp Fund grant; this is done when you register for the conference. When registering for the conference, you are required to pay the pre-registration fee: this is the conference deposit plus the membership fee. If the pre-registration fee has not been paid, an applicant’s proposal will not be considered. The membership fee is not refundable.  

Grants will normally cover conference fees (excluding membership) and may also contribute towards the costs of accommodation, visas, and travel depending on the decision of the Skemp Fund committee (recent awards have ranged between 500 Euros and 2500 Euros). 

Before applying for the Skemp grant, you need to be aware that some or all of your travel costs will have to be paid initially by yourself or your institution. You will be reimbursed at the conference site up to a maximum of the total grant amount awarded, once you have justified the expenses incurred as a result of attending the conference at the location of the conference. If your expenses have been less than the total grant amount awarded, you will be reimbursed the amount paid. If your expenses are higher than the total agreed grant amount awarded, you will be reimbursed the total amount awarded as the grant. 

For assistance, you can address the IGPME Administrative manager at .

The Richard Skemp Memorial Support Fund is a fund that was established to support academics from under-represented or economically weak countries in attending the annual conference. The spirit of the fund is to help academics who normally would not have access to the PME conference. As such, where applicants are from, where they are living, where they are working, where they are currently studying, as well as the conditions of their employment and studies are important factors when adjudicating the applications.  

The Skemp Fund plays an increasingly important role in making the PME annual conference more accessible to mathematics educators who would not otherwise be able to attend the conference. The extent to which we can give this financial assistance depends to a large degree on the generosity of the PME community. For this reason, a recommended donation of EUR 30 is set as the default donation in ConfTool at pre-registration to support the average cost of the grants awarded each year. The compulsory minimum donation of EUR 10 remains for those members for whom a donation of EUR 30 could be difficult and is included in the pre-registration fee.  In addition, the PME International Committee calls on members to make an additional donation, however small, to the Skemp Fund when paying membership fees or registering for annual conferences. 

The Richard Skemp Memorial Support Fund Committee will meet during the second meeting of the International Programme Committee (April 2026) and will make its recommendations once decisions on the acceptance or rejection of proposals have been completed. 

The PME Administrative Manager will contact applicants to inform them about the decision on their grant application and the maximum grant amount awarded. This will usually take place before the end of April each year. Please note that grants cannot be carried over to future conferences. A new application will have to be made for the new conference. 

Criteria on which a grant may be awarded 

A. Conditions for support to be given 

1. Applicants need to reside in a country where financial support is difficult to obtain. Some explanation or justification is required. If the applicant is studying in a more affluent country, which could be normally expected to provide support, this will also be taken into account.
2. The applicant’s institution is unable to provide sufficient funding for the conference.
3. The applicant is unable to provide funding using personal means and declares that it is not possible to cover the costs from other sources.
4. The applicant has pre-registered and paid the conference deposit.
5. The applicant has submitted a proposal for a contribution of one of the kinds listed above.
6. If the proposal has more than one author, only the presenting author can apply for funding.
7. The proposal is accepted. 

B. Priorities 

1. Applicants coming from a country which has had few PME participants from that country recently would be prioritized, provided all other conditions in A are met.
2. Newcomers and early-career researchers/lecturers are prioritized over members who have participated in prior conferences or who are established researchers/lecturers.
3. Applicants who have an RR accepted are prioritized over other applicants.
4. Contributions that are considered outstanding by the reviewers, the IPC and/or the Skemp Fund selection committee are prioritized.
5. Under normal circumstances, an applicant will be eligible for a grant from the Skemp Fund only for one PME conference; in rare cases funding might be given twice – for example, if the applicant can demonstrate that an outcome of the first grant was a substantial development of the work presented at the first participation. 

 C. Funding amount 

1. The number and sizes of grants made in any year will depend on the amount of money available to the Skemp Fund in that particular year as well as the number and size of applications the same year.
2. Grants will normally only cover conference fees (excluding membership) but may also contribute to accommodation and/or visa and travel expenses in exceptional circumstances, depending on the decision of the Skemp Fund Committee. The maximum possible amount will be the conference fee (excluding the conference deposit), travel, visa and accommodation in student accommodation or hostel or similar low-cost accommodation.
3. The funding must be used for the conference for which it is given. Applicants need to justify the expenses by providing relevant documents, such as travel and accommodation receipts. Only the amounts on these documents will be reimbursed up to the grant amount awarded.
4. The applicant will need to raise all funding temporarily as the grant from the Skemp fund will be paid at the location of the conference. In justified cases, the conference deposit can be reimbursed to help pay for travel expenses before travel.

Skemp Fund ambassadors 

PME wishes to attract more participants from under-represented countries, especially those where funding is difficult to obtain. We ask our Skemp Fund recipients to become ‘ambassadors’ for PME: to make PME, including the possibility of Skemp Fund support, better known in such countries. If you are requesting a grant, please tell us briefly how you might use your personal knowledge of possible new members in underrepresented countries and non-affluent areas if you are a successful recipient.