Sandpit Meetings: Tackling Major Challenges in Physiology
Have you identified a major challenge in physiology where bringing together a diverse group of participants, in a format designed for collaboration rather than traditional presentations, could foster new partnerships and innovative approaches to progress? Members can apply to hold a Sandpit Meeting to make it happen.
The call for proposals for Sandpit Meetings in 2027 will close on 30 September 2026.
Download the proposal formWhat is a Sandpit Meeting?
Sandpit Meetings are intensive, highly interactive workshops designed to bring diverse participants together to tackle complex challenges in physiology. Unlike traditional scientific meetings, sandpits focus on generating ideas, building collaborations, and developing new research directions through structured sessions, problem-mapping, and facilitated group discussions.
Who can apply?
Proposals for Sandpit Meetings are open to all physiologists, but at least one of the Sandpit Meeting Convenors should be a member (Postgraduate, Full or Fellow) of the Physiological Society in at least their second year of membership.
What is available?
- Financial and logistical support for convening one Sandpit Meeting per year in the UK.
- The funding of up to £7500 will support up to two full meeting days and one night’s accommodation in a university setting for up to 30 invited participants (15 established and 15 ECRs).
- No travel funding will be provided.
- The funding is capped and the final venue will be selected by the Events Team.
How do I apply?
To apply, please download, complete, and send back your application together with a draft schedule of activities. Completed applications should be sent to events@physoc.org. Informal enquires can also be sent to this email address as well.
When can I apply?
The call for proposals for Sandpit Meetings in 2027 will close on 30 September 2026.
Guidance
Proposals should seek to address major challenges where coordinated action can accelerate progress, rather than focusing solely on advancing the scientific understanding of the problem. Applications should highlight the practical steps, collaborations, resources, or frameworks needed to achieve real impact.
Applications should explain how the sandpit format will uniquely enable progress. For example, by bringing together diverse expertise, fostering new partnerships, and creating the conditions for innovative approaches and collaborative research programmes. Strong proposals clearly show how convening the sandpit and its participants will deliver outcomes beyond those possible in a traditional scientific meeting. They should demonstrate that the aims, objectives, outputs and outcomes require the intensive, collaborative nature of a sandpit, rather than a conventional meeting.
Applications should set out clear objectives, outputs, and outcomes, and explain how the proposed sessions and activities will achieve them. Applicants should also justify why this particular group of participants is essential and why the intended outcomes could not be realised through other formats. This element is essential to ensuring the competitiveness of the proposal.
Through this scheme, the Society seeks to support initiatives that spark collaboration, stimulate fresh ideas, and tackle some of the most pressing challenges in physiology.
Testimonial
We ran our inaugural sandpit meeting in June 2023, in collaboration with UKDRI and Dementia Platforms UK. The aim was to improve treatments for cerebrovascular diseases, including stroke and dementia, by generating new collaborative grant applications that improve the translation of animal research into patients. It brought 25 principal investigators and early career researchers together for a two-day residential meeting at Keele University. Here we considered the issues that have precluded success in this area and came up with plans for collaborative projects that could address these challenges. Multicentre grants on these topics have since been submitted to major funders, and other applications are in preparation.
Professor Catherine Hall (University of Sussex and University College London, UK),
Chair, Scientific Conferences Committee