British Society of Rheology: Annual Report 2024
The British Society of Rheology (BSR) is registered in England and Wales under Charity number 24996.
Trustees (elected April 2024)
Prof. Maria Charalambides (President), Dr Josélio Viera (President Elect), Dr R. Watson (Secretary), Dr A. Aufderhorst-Roberts (Treasurer), Dr M. Oliveira (Membership
Secretary), Dr R. Thompson, (Bulletin Editor), Dr F. Del Giudice (Web Editor), Dr M. Tassieri (Publications manager), Dr C. Ness (ordinary member), Prof R. Graham (ordinary member), Dr R. Hodgkinson (ordinary member), Dr J. Hodges (ordinary member), Dr C. McIlroy (ordinary member).
Structure, Management, & Recruitment
The structure of government of the BSR is detailed in the constitution document.
Any person interested in rheology is eligible to apply for membership of the BSR and may do so through the society’s website. Each member pays an annual subscription fee.
The affairs of the BSR are managed by a Council of 13 members, which includes the President, Immediate Past President or President-Elect, 5 executive officers, namely Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Web Editor, and Bulletin Editor, and 6 ordinary members. The members of Council are deemed to be "Trustees" as defined by The Charities Act 1993.
Council meets three times per year to manage the funds and affairs of the BSR in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 1993. Council reports to members of the BSR at an Annual General Meeting, which takes place in the spring of each year. The business at the AGM includes
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i) The election of officers and other members of Council. ii) To receive a report and accounts from Council.
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iii) To deal with any resolution or special matter which Council desire to bring before the members or any member wishes to raise and receive suggestions from the members for consideration by Council.
The President is elected at an Annual General Meeting to serve in that office initially as President Elect for 1 year, as President for the subsequent 2 years, and as Immediate Past President for the final year. All other members of Council are elected at each Annual General Meeting and may serve in a role for up to 4 years. Candidates for council are proposed and seconded by members of the BSR.
Objectives & Activities
The objective of the BSR is the promotion of scientific inquiry and the diffusion to the public of knowledge connected with the advancement of pure and applied rheology defined as the science of the deformation and flow of matter.
To fulfil this objective, the BSR coordinates several activities, including
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Organisation and sponsorship of scientific meetings,
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Funding initiatives for members, which can be applied for via the website,
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Awards to recognise excellence in the field of rheology, as nominated by BSR members,
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Publication of a bulletin for members 3 times per year to promote rheology.
When planning activities for the year, the BSR Council consider the Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Further details of the activities taking place in the year 2024 are given in the following section.
Achievements & Performance
Membership
This year the BSR counts 261 Individual Members, including 64 Honorary Members, in addition to corporate memberships. This means 45 more members than at the time of the previous AGM, with several of the new membership subscriptions occurring in advance of BSR organised/sponsored meetings. The membership consists of Industrial, Academic (including postdoctoral researchers) and Student members. The majority are based in Great Britain, but membership extends globally including Europe, Americas, Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Scientific Meetings
Scientific meetings are beneficial to BSR members by enabling knowledge exchange, network building, and skills development. Our BSR meetings provide a platform for rheologists to interact and be inspired by the latest advancements in rheology. This year BSR was involved in:
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The Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC), hosted by the University of Leeds in April, where the 83[rd] AGM for BSR members took place.
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The BSR Non-Newtonian Club (September) took place in Swansea, where BSR sponsored a prize for the best student presentation.
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The BSR Mid-Winter Meeting (December) took place in Sheffield, where our BSR awards were celebrated.
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BSR also sponsored the Tom McLeish Memorial Meeting in Durham (September) to celebrate the achievements of a late BSR member and Gold Medal Award winner.
Funding Initiatives
Our funding initiatives enable our members to promote rheology through conference presentations, meeting organisation, and public outreach events, as well as inspire the next generation of rheologists through supervision of undergraduate research projects. These initiatives ultimately strengthen the rheology community and its impact on and engagement with society.
This year we had 7 applications for our Undergraduate Summer Research Bursaries, 3 of which were funded, as decided by a sub-committee of council members. A positive development this year has been the redesign of the summer bursary programme to meet the living wage requirements and to allow universities to apply at which summer students are classed as PAYE employees. Student bursary holders provided reports for the bulletin detailing their work.
The first award of the new BSR Carers Grant was made to assist a member attending the AERC and the Rheology Engagement Fund facilitated a member to promote the BSR during the AERC via an exhibition stand and distribution of promotional materials, including pots of rheologically interesting fluids and surplus copies of the bulletin from the archive. BSR travel grants were provided to 8 student members and 1 early career member to present their work at a various national and international rheology conferences. All grant holders provided reports for the bulletin detailing their experiences.
BSR also launched a new funding scheme to support the personal development of Early Career Researchers in rheology.
BSR Awards
Our BSR Awards celebrate members’ achievements, motivate members to achieve high standards and share best practices, and raise the visibility of rheology. By promoting excellence, these awards ensure that the public benefits from more effective, innovative, and trustworthy research and practice.
This year’s Annual Award for significant contributions to rheology was awarded to Prof Ian Frigaard, University of British Columbia. The Vernon Harrison Award for the most distinguished PhD was awarded Dr. Matthew Smith at Glasgow University on ‘Broadband computational rheology for material characterisation’. Both awardees presented their work at the Mid-Winter Meeting and were asked to provide articles for the bulletin. Council is actively seeking nominations for the next BSR Gold Medallist.
Other Activities
This year BSR decided to collectively write an article on the State of UK Rheology, the title of which will be “Recent Progress and Future Opportunities in the field of Rheology: A British Society of Rheology Review”. BSR have been given permission to submit this
paper in Proceedings of Royal Society A and hopes that this collective work will prove helpful for all current and future rheologists.
Financial Review
This year BSR have awarded ~£14,000, which is around £5k higher than in typical years. Given previous surpluses, this is excellent progress, and the BSR is enthused to put these funds to such good use. In summary, the BSR is improving in spending its annual surplus. BSR have available funds of ~£48k (this allows for a contingency reserve of around £25k, to be used in emergencies). BSR plan to continue a to run a moderate deficit in 2025 through subsidization of BSR meetings and increased spending on funding initiatives. Running an annual deficit, for example, of £3k would stretch excess funds over 15 years.
Dr Claire McIlroy
BSR Ordinary Member of Council
16[th] October 2025
| The British Society of Rheology | 249967 |
|---|---|
| Receipts andpayments accounts |
CC16a
| For | the period from |
01/01/2024 | To | 31/12/2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section A Receipts and payments | Section A Receipts and payments | Section A Receipts and payments | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
||||
Members subscriptions |
5,315 | - | - | 5,315 | 4,557 | ||||
| Donations | 130 | - | - | 130 | 135 | ||||
| Scientific meetings | 37,993 | - | - | 37,993 | 31,340 | ||||
| Awards,Prizes,Grants and Bursaries | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Publishing | 2,856 | - | - | 2,856 | 14,345 | ||||
| Website advertising | 895 | - | - | 895 | 1,200 | ||||
| Investment income | 2,298 | 118 | - | 2,416 | 1,989 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 49,487 | 118 | - | 49,605 | 53,566 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 53,566 | |||||||||
Scientific Meetings |
9,800 | - | - | 9,800 | 41,277 | ||||
| Awards,Prizes,Grants and Bursaries | 14,344 | - | - | 14,344 | 6,507 | ||||
| Publishing | 2,281 | - | - | 2,281 | 3,146 | ||||
| Website maintenance | 2,330 | - | - | 2,330 | 3,002 | ||||
| Bankingand Insurance | 1,468 | - | - | 1,468 | 1,364 | ||||
| Truistee expenses | 528 | - | - | 528 | 71 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 30,751 | - | - | 30,751 | 55,367 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||||||
| 55,367 | |||||||||
| 18,736 | - 1,801 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 75,036 | 86,663 | ||||||||
| 93,772 | 84,862 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 t SS Categories B1 Cash funds |
~~1~~ PayPal account Deposit account Current account Scott-Blair current account Details |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 2,015 666 48,175 11,770 |
Restricted funds to nearest £ - 9,944 |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current account | 2,015 | - | - | |
| PayPal account | 666 | |||
| Deposit account | 48,175 | |||
| ~~1~~ Scott-Blair current account |
11,770 | 9,944 | ~~2/10/2025~~ - |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
| Membership current account | 31,147 | - | - | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total cash funds | 93,773 | 9,944 | - | ||||||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) | Agreement Error | OK | OK | ||||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted funds | Endowment | |||||||
| funds | funds | ||||||||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | |||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||||
| B3 Investment assets | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||||
| B4 Assets retained for the | Presidential chain of office | General | - | 7,900 | |||||
| charity’s own use | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Fund to which | Amount due | When due | |||||||
| Details | liability relates | (optional) | (optional) | ||||||
| B5 Liabilities | - | ||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Signature SIGN |
Name | Date of approval | ||||||
| ANDERSAUFDERHORST-ROBERTS | 22/10/2025 | ||||||||
| Robert John Poole | 24/10/2025 | ||||||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
22/10/2025
2
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF RHEOLOGY On aGcounts for the year ended 31 Dember 2024 Charity no (if any) 249967 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {"the Trust") for the year ended 3111212024. Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 1.the Act") I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145151(bl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come lo my attention (other than that disclosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives me cause lo believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kepl in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts lo be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Independent examiner's Statement Signed: Date: 27 October 2025 Name: David Collier Relevant professional qualificationls) or body (if any): Fellow of the Association of Charity Independent Examiners Address: 10 Marlborough Square Ilkley, LS29 8PU IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete ifthe examiner needs lo highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounls.. directions and guidan for examiners). NONE Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER October 2018