The Commission for Developing Countries (CDC) is actively working to enhance its funding opportunities.  It strongly encourages mathematicians and students from developing countries to apply to the calls below and to reach out to the CDC for further details via email.

We would like to bring our colleagues’ attention to our two annual calls for graduate scholarships.  The 2024 call for the GRAID Program is currently open, and the call for the IMU Breakout Graduate Fellowship Program will open soon.

Grants to Institutions

• Volunteer Lecturer Program (next deadline December 31, 2023)
• Library Assistance Scheme (no fixed deadline)

Grants for Conferences and Projects

• Conference Support Program (next deadline January 15, 2024, for conferences starting after May 15, 2024)

Grants to Individuals

• Abel Visiting Scholar Program (next deadline December 31, 2023, for visits between May 1 and August 31, 2024)
• Individual Travel Support Program (next deadline January 15, 2024, for visits starting between May 15, 2024, and May 15, 2025)

Graduate Scholarships

• IMU Breakout Graduate Fellowship Program (the 2024 call for nominations will be open from February 1 to May 31, 2024)
• Graduate Research Assistantships in Developing Countries (GRAID) Program (the 2024 call for applications is open with deadline on March 15, 2024)

Ludovic Rifford
Secretary for Policy of the CDC

CWM 2024 Call is now open.  The CWM invites proposals for funding of up to €3000 for activities or initiatives to support women in mathematics taking place from February 2024 to February 2025. Applications should be submitted by January 5, 2024, via the IMU dedicated webform. They should aim at one of the following:

• Establishing or supporting networks for women in mathematics, preferably at the continental or regional level.
• Organizing research workshops geared towards establishing research networks for women in mathematics.
• Other ideas for researching and/or addressing issues encountered by women in mathematics.

This will be the only call for applications regarding activities in 2024.  Successful applicants will be informed no later than February 16, 2024.

For more information, please read the call here.  Instructions on how to submit a proposal via the the IMU dedicated webform can be found here.

CWM member Matilde Lalín named Fellow of AWM.  The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) has named twelve mathematicians as 2024 AWM Fellows, including CWM member Matilde Lalín.  More details, including the citations for the 2024 AWM Fellows can be found here.

Congratulations to Matilde and all new AWM Fellows!

Carolina Araujo and Hélène Barcelo
Chair and Vice-Chair of the IMU Committee for Women in Mathematics

The Committee on Electronic Information and Communication is a standing committee of the International Mathematical Union.  Its mandate is

• To advise the IMU on all aspects related to (mainly digital) information and communication, including technical, legal, and financial implications.
• To review the development of electronic information, communication, publication, instruction, and archiving.
• To advise the IMU about potential opportunities to endorse standards and articulate best practice recommendations as well as to foster growth and development of electronic infrastructure.

Currently, the CEIC is working on possibilities to further develop the vision of a Global Digital Math Library (GDML).

Assorted News and Calls

1. For most mathematicians, arXiv is a daily tool that they have used since the beginning of their career.  For functioning well, it strongly relies on a set of devoted moderators, who are established experts in their respective fields of research.  In the long term, the arXiv aims at doubling the number of its moderators in mathematics from the current 40 to around 80 and to achieve a better worldwide geographical distribution.  If you are interested, please contact Ilka Agricola (see below) or use directly the submission form.
2. The Council of the European Union has adopted in May 2023 conclusions on the ‘high quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing’, in which it calls for immediate and unrestricted open access in publishing research involving public funds; see this press release.
3. The DEAL Consortium, representing the German research institutions, and Elsevier have entered into a five-year agreement in early September 2023; see this press release.

Ilka Agricola
CEIC Chair

The next IDM will take place on March 14, 2024, under the theme “Playing with math”.

1. The IDM 2024 event map is coming and should be online very soon at the IDM website.  Encourage all organizations or schools which celebrate the IDM to post their event on the IDM event map.
2. New activities have been posted on the website in several languages: visit Organize an event webpage.  These include:

3. National IDM websites: national communities are invited to create their national IDM website and the IDM website will link to these. (There will be a review process to check that the websites are indeed national websites and, for instance, not promoting private organizations.)
4. The IDM celebrations take place in the local languages.  The IDM website offers resources in several languages, but the IDM team does not have the resources to cover all languages except for logos.  National communities who wish to translate the material into their own language are invited to do so (we can provide the source files) and to post the translations on their national website.

Christiane Rousseau
Chair of the IDM Governing Board

The closing ceremony of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD) will take place on December 15, 2023, at CERN, 9:00-18:00 CET (8:00-17:00 UTC).  For those who can attend the event on site, it is still possible to register.  The event will also be webcast live from the IYBSSD website, where a link will be available on December 15.

The closing ceremony will be preceded on December 14, 2023, by the side event “Opening Science for All” co-organized by CERN and UNESCO.  It is still possible to register for onsite attendance.  The event will not be webcast.

The Standing Committee for Gender Equality in Science (SCGES) is an independent committee formed in 2020 by several international scientific organizations, including the IMU.  These founding partners had worked together on the project A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences: How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?, which became known as the “Gender Gap in Science Project”.  The main goal of the project was to produce sound data about gender gap in science to support the choices of interventions that scientific unions could feasibly undertake.  In 2020, the Gender Gap in Science Book was published, presenting the methodology, results, activities and recommendations of the project.  The SCGES was formed as a follow-up to this project.  Its aim is to ensure liaison amongst international scientific unions to foster gender equality and the implementation of recommendations of the Gender Gap in Science Project.  The SCGES third Annual Report has just been published and can be found on the SCGES website.

The next International Congress of Mathematicians will be held in Philadelphia on July 23-30, 2026.  This coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 40th anniversary of the last ICM in the U.S., which was held in Berkeley.  The ICM offers a rare opportunity to meet some of the world's leading mathematicians and get impressions of the vast diversity of today’s mathematics.

Philadelphia provides the ICM with an excellent conference center conveniently located in the heart of the city.  There is an abundance of choices of food within walking distance.  There are top quality hotels close to the conference center and for the budget minded there will be a selection of dorm rooms at Philadelphia universities.  The city offers fascinating history, world class art and culture for your enjoyment.

We hope to see many of you in Philadelphia!

Jalal Shatah 
Chair of the ICM2026 Local Organizing Committee

The ICM Structure Committee (SC) was established at the 2018 General Assembly of the IMU in São Paulo.  The SC is charged with the task of proposing the structure for the ICMs.  The SC for ICM 2026 recently finalized their report, which has now been endorsed by the IMU Executive Committee.  For further details, the reader is referred to Circular Letter 8/2023, available at the IMU circular letters webpage .

The ICM Bidding Guidelines for 2030 have been updated, providing advice and instructions to potential bidders for the ICM in 2030.  Please read the guidelines carefully and take note of the updates and changes.  Every country interested in making a bid for ICM 2030 is strongly encouraged to do so and may contact IMU’s Secretary General for further information.

The updated ICM Bidding Guidelines are available here.

The 11th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) will take place in Heidelberg, Germany, from 22 to 27 September 2024.

At the HLF, all winners of the Fields Medal, the Abel Prize, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Nevanlinna Prize/IMU Abacus Medal, and the ACM Prize in Computing are invited to attend.  In addition, young and talented computer scientists and mathematicians are invited to apply for participation.  The HLF serves as a great platform for interaction between the masters in the fields of mathematics and computer science and young talents.

Applications to attend the 11th HLF are open in three categories: Undergraduate/Pre-Master, Graduate PhD, and PostDocs.  The application period for the 11th HLF runs from 9 November 2023 to 9 February 2024 (midnight CET).  More information on the application process can be found on their FAQ for young researchers.

Nominations for the 2024 ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize are now open.  The deadline for receipt of nominations is 1 February 2024.  The Ramanujan Prize for outstanding, young mathematicians from developing countries has been awarded annually since 2005 and is administered jointly by the ICTP and the IMU.

The VII Latin-American Congress of Mathematicians (CLAM 2024) will take place in João Pessoa, Brazil, from 26 to 30 August 2024.  This congress takes place every four years.  Its aim is to foster the development of mathematical research in Latin America and the Caribbean, to make visible the mathematical achievements of the region, and to promote the professional partnership among the mathematicians of the region and the rest of the world.  At each congress, the UMALCA Prizes are awarded to the most talented young mathematicians working in the region.

The programme of CLAM 2024 will include plenary and semi-plenary lectures, thematic sessions, round-table discussions and workshops, covering a wide range of topics in mathematics and its applications.

Members of UMALCA and the mathematical community of Latin America and the Caribbean are invited to submit proposals for thematic sessions.  The deadline for proposals is 10 December 2023.