**THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024 Registered Charity number: 265816** 

**JCS Accountants Limited 5 Robin Hood Lane Sutton Surrey SM1 2SW** 



## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY** 

**FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

## **Contents** 

|||
|---|---|
|**Contents**|**Page**|
|Officers and Advisers|1|
|Executive Committee’s Report|2-7|
|Independent Examiner’s Report|8|
|Statement of Financial Activities|9|
|Balance Sheet|10|
|Notes to the Financial Statements|11-14|





P a g e | **1** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS** 

Trustees/Officers: Laura Machesky President Giampietro Schiavo Treasurer Simon Allison Secretary Nathalie Signoret Membership Secretary Viji Draviam Meetings Secretary Helen Matthews Web and social media Officer Ciaran Morrison Newsletter Secretary Tom Nightingale Newsletter Secretary Trustees/Officers Elect: Tobias Zech (from 22.11.24) Treasurer elect Mattea Finelli (from 22.11.24) Newsletter Secretary elect James Brown (from 22.11.24) Newsletter Secretary elect Trustees ending their term in 2024: Carine de Marcos (22.11.24) Secretary Susana Godinho (22.11.24) Meetings Secretary Jason King (22.11.24) Membership Secretary Stephen Robinson (22.11.24)  Web and social media Officer Other Executive Committee Members: Daniel Booth Honor Fell Secretary/Childcare Officer Tom McVicar (from 22.11.24) Honor Fell Secretary/Childcare Officer Victoria Cowling (end 22.11.24) Summer studentships Liz Miller (from 22.11.24) Summer studentships Darius Koester Science advocacy Officer Aymen al-Rawi Postdoc representative Emily Lucas (end 22.11.24) PhD student representative Harriet Smith (from 22.11.24) PhD student representative David Archer (end 15.04.24) Education Strategy Officer Ye Dee Tay (from 22.11.24) Education Strategy Officer 

Key Management Personnel: Prof L Machesky President Prof G Schiavo Treasurer Dr S Allison Secretary Bankers: HSBC Bank plc Arlington Business Centre Millshaw Park Lane Leeds LS11 0PA Virgin Money 7 Gold Street Northampton NN1 1EN Independent Examiner: Miriam Hickson CTA FCA JCS Accountants Limited 5 Robin Hood Lane Sutton Surrey SM1 2SW Contact Address: C/O Prof G Schiavo Queen Square Institute of Neurology University College London Queen Square London WC2N 3BG 



P a g e | **2** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

The Officers (who are the trustees of the Society for the purposes of charity law) have pleasure in presenting their report and the independently examined accounts of the Society for the year ended 31 December 2024. These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, the Statement of Recommended Practice (Charities SORP 2019 (FRS102)), Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102); and the constitution of the Society. 

## **Structure, Governance and Management** 

## **Officers and committee** 

Under the constitution of the Society, the Officers of the Society are a President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Meetings Convenor, a Membership Secretary, a Newsletter Editor and a Website Co-ordinator. There is also an Executive Committee of the Society consisting of the Officers and thirteen other elected members. 

The Executive Committee is elected at the Annual General Meeting, with the Officers being elected by the Executive Committee and the President being nominated by the Executive Committee. 

The trustees are trained by having an at least 1-year transition period in which case the new trustee shadows the previous trustee, thus ensuring they know how to fill the role. 

The Executive Committee prepares the Agenda for meetings of the Society, and between meetings acts as necessary on behalf of the Society; reporting on any such actions to the next meeting of the Society. 

The individuals who served as Officers and Executive Committee members during the year, and since the yearend, were as follows: 

Prof C Morrison (Joined 2019) Dr T Nightingale (Joined 2020) Prof G Schiavo (Joined 2020) Prof V Draviam (Joined 2021) Dr D Koester (Joined 2021) Prof L Machesky (Joined 2022) Prof N Signoret (Joined 2022) Dr S Allison (Joined 2022) Dr D Booth (Joined 2022) Dr A al-Rawi (Joined 2023) Dr H Matthews (Joined 2023) Dr T McVicar (Joined 2023) Dr L Miller (Joined 2023) Dr James Brown (Joined 2024) Dr Mattea Finelli (Joined 2024) Ms Harriet Smith (Joined 2024) Dr Ye Dee Tay (Joined 2024) Prof Tobias Zech (Joined 2024) 



P a g e | **3** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

(CONTINUED) 

The Executive Committee members in office at the date of this report are detailed on the previous page. The Key Management Personnel of the charity as listed on page 1 are in charge of directing, controlling, running and operating the charity on a day-to-day basis. No remuneration is paid to any of the Key Management Personnel or the other trustees. 

## **Constitution** 

The Society is constituted under a constitution executed in 1965 and amended in 2014 and 2022. The Society is a registered charity, number 265816. 

## **Risk assessment** 

The major risks to which the Society is exposed, as identified by the Executive Committee, have been reviewed in the year and systems are in place to mitigate those. 

As we are a society, one major risk is a drop in numbers of members. To mitigate this risk, we have introduced easier ways of maintaining membership via direct debit, and introductory packages for PhD students that include 3 years membership at reduced rate. We hope that once students see the benefit of membership they will continue once they graduate. 

## **Objectives and Activities** 

The objects of the Society are to promote the advancement of research in relation to all branches of cell biology and to encourage the interchange of information and support career development. The Society generally aims to fulfil these objects by organising and sponsoring meetings each year on topics relevant to cell biology; funding travel grants to PhD students, postdoctoral scientists and group leaders; Funding training courses in Cell Biology for early career scientists; Funding summer studentships; Issuing a yearly newsletter and maintaining a website (www.bscb.org). The Executive Committee confirm that they have had due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission relating to public benefit. 

## **Achievements and Performance** 

The Company of Biologists (CoB) awarded the BSCB with a Block Grant of £35,000 and an Operational Grant of £62,500 in 2024, and kindly allowed the BSCB to transfer over funding for PI Support Grants and Practical Courses to the Operational Grant Fund. The support provided by the CoB is vitally important for the BSCB and enables it to promote Cell Biology within the UK across schools, universities and to support the research community. After the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the BSCB has experienced sustained demands for travel grants and summer fellowships. In contrast, the requests for PI support and courses remain lower than before the pandemic. 

## **Membership** 

At the end of 2024, the BSCB had 765 paid members. The total membership is lower than last year and this is due to a new reporting method implemented by our new Membership Secretary (Prof N Signoret) with the help of our management company (HG3 Ltd). This reporting system allows us to monitor active subscriptions rather than total membership numbers (1,112), which also include “awaiting renewal” memberships. The BSCB is continuing to promote new membership initiatives to secure new members. 

## **Scientific Networking** 

The BSCB has fully resumed its well-established function of organising scientific meetings for the Cell Biology community. In 2024, we co-organised the **Cell Migration 90[th] Harden Conference** jointly organised by BSCB and Biochemical Society in Birmingham. The conference was very successful with 150 participants and 103 abstracts submitted, which resulted in 66 on-site posters. 

In addition, we provided support for one-day national meetings via £1,500 grants. Due to increasing demand, the BSCB voted to increase the annual budget for these meetings from £6,000 to £9,000 in November 2024. Selected reports from these smaller meetings will be published in the BCSB Magazine where they are widely accessible to all our members. 



P a g e | **4** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

(CONTINUED) 

## **Career development** 

BSCB postdoc and PhD representatives have established two prizes to recognize excellence at their career stages. At our last meeting, they have helped to select talks for the conference and organised an ECR ‘Scientific Speed Dating’ event that ran on the first day of the meeting, where people networked and had fun. 

## **Summer Internships** 

These awards aim to encourage the very best undergraduate students to consider research careers in cell biology. Awards were based on competitive applications scored by by eight members of the BSCB committee. In 2024, we received 43 applications, matching the record level of applications of 2023 and chose 11 for funding. These research projects were designed to be carried out in the laboratory, but several proposals had contingency plans for been carried out remotely, if necessary, with a clear description of how remote supervision would be conducted. We confirmed the level of funding to £340/week (to be in line with the minimum wage for under 23s, which is £9.18/h for a 36.5 h week and increased living costs). Most projects (9 in total) were for 8 weeks. Once completed, each student generated a report that was published in our BSCB newsletter. 

## **Scientific Awards** 

We continued to promote Cell Biology by awarding prestigious scientific prizes at multiple career levels. 

The **Hooke medal** is awarded to an outstanding cell biologist who started their own laboratory within the last 14 years. In 2024, we awarded the Hooke Medal to **Emmanuel Derivery** , a group leader at the MRC Lab of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) in Cambridge. His research focus is asymmetric cell division, which his group studies combining state-of-the-art, quantitative imaging in developing flies and mammalian cells with an emphasis on technology development. The other BSCB senior award is the **Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Early Career Medal** , which was established in 2015 to mark the 50[th] anniversary of the founding of the BSCB. It is an annual honour awarded to an outstanding female cell biologist who has started her own research group in the UK within the last seven years. In 2024, the WICB award went **Alexis Barr** , a Cancer Research UK Career Development Fellow and MRC Investigator at Imperial College London. Alexis’ research programme focusses on understanding the regulatory mechanisms controlling cell cycle entry and exit in human cells and use that information to manipulate cancer cell proliferation for better cancer treatment. We hope that this BSCB award contributes to recognising women’s success and provides role models for future generations. 

Two junior prizes, which are awarded by ad-hoc committee, led by the BSCB postdoc and PhD representatives, are associated with two additional medals. The **BSCB postdoc award** is given to the next generation of inspirational scientific leaders, who have already made a major contribution to UK/Ireland Cell Biology during their postdoctoral training. The BSCB Postdoctoral Researcher Medal Winner 2024 is **Carlos Pardo-Pastor** , a postdoctoral fellow in Jody Rosenblatt’s group at the Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London and the Francis Crick Institute. For his postdoctoral work sponsored by a Human Frontiers and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship, Carlos has focused on the role of Piezo1 in epithelial cell turnover. Carlos regularly participates in outreach activities like Shadow a Scientist or K+ days, aimed at secondary school students to foster the next generation of UK-based scientists. 

**Saranne Mitchell** is the recipient of the **2024 Raff Medal BSCB PhD Award.** Saranne’s PhD project in the laboratory of Jody Rosenblatt focused on a conserved mechanism of epithelial cell homeostasis, known as extrusion. As the epithelia cells are essential to organ function, misregulation of epithelial cell extrusion can lead to tumour formation, or if in excess, can lead to inflammation. Saranne discovered that low cellular energy mechanically triggers water-based cell shrinkage, which in turn induces extrusion. Saranne is passionate about inspiring and fostering women in science. She has organized an annual outreach program called Women in science scholar day, for which she actively recruits women with diverse science backgrounds to give them an integrative learning experience. 

The four winners were awarded their medals during the Cell Migration 90[th] Harden Conference. Further details of their work can be found on the BSCB website. 



P a g e | **5** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

(CONTINUED) 

We run two additional competitions each year which are open to junior scientists: the **BSCB Science Writing Prize** and **Image Competition** . The winning image was submitted by **Alan Prescott** (University of Dundee) with honourable mentions for **Irene Aspalter** (The Francis Crick Institute) and **Jishizhan Chen** (University College London). The winning essay entitled _No mushroom for error – deadly fungi and the search for antidote_ was submitted by **Monika Myszczynska** , a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Sheffield. 

The winners were awarded their prizes during the 2024 90[th] Harden Conference. Further details of their work could be found on our website and will be reported on the next edition of the BSCB newsletter. 

## **Supporting attendance at scientific meetings** 

The **Honor Fell Travel Awards** have been extremely popular, enabling students and postdocs to attend meetings worldwide. These have been administered by Daniel Booth and Thomas McVicar. Because attending national and international meetings is a crucial aspect of early career scientist training, we attempt to fund most of all eligible applications providing they are presenting a poster. As mentioned before, we experienced an overwhelming interest for this scheme, with a total expenditure of £40,000 in 2024 (100% of allocated budget). 

Our **PI Support scheme** is also very important. It enables PIs with limited or no funding to attend meetings to support their development. However, applications to this scheme as well as to the **Practical Courses** continue to be below pre-pandemic levels. We continue to advertise widely these sources of funding to members. 

Details of the application process for these CoB Award Schemes are provided on the website and in our BSCB Magazine. 

## **Outreach Activities** 

Committee member Darius Koester from the University of Warwick is our Science Advocacy and Outreach Officer. Darius uses the email list of engaged BSCB members to coordinate our society’s responses to various governmental calls for consultation flagged up by the Royal Society of Biology. Key science policy information is shared with our membership via the website and magazine. Planned activities include the formulation of an official BSCB position towards supporting the value of preprints and their role in the scientific community, encouraging all members to adhere to the DORA guidelines and support open access models. 

We published a new edition of the BSCB magazine in April 2024 to publicize the BSCB and our work. This edition, which is slightly longer than the previous (42 pages instead of 36), has been printed in more than 1,000 copies distributed to all members. It was also available at the 90[th] Harden Conference in Birmingham for attendees to pick up and take away. Tom Nightingale and Ciaran Morrison are the committee members responsible for the content of the latest BSCB magazine. 

## **Website and Social Media** 

The BSCB website (www.bscb.org) also allows members and the wider cell biology community to keep informed about our activities. We have almost completed the revamping of the BSCB website, a process coordinated by committee member Stephen Robinson and Helen Matthews with the external support of the company Blue2/Altar. The new BSCB website will be directly linked to social media and will be more accessible to members with disabilities. The website will be much easier to maintain and update, a major shortcoming of the current BSCB website. 

The BSCB committee has recently decided to enhance and broaden the BSCB presence on social media by establishing a presence on new platforms and using scheduling software to put out social media posts across multiple platforms. To this end, the BSCB has created of working subgroup led by Helen Matthews, who has started to implement these changes at the end of 2024. 



P a g e | **6** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

(CONTINUED) 

## **Financial Review** 

## **Reserves** 

The Executive Committee regularly reviews the reserves of the charity to ensure that sufficient liquid funds are available for the Society to meet its ongoing obligations. The trustees require a level of unrestricted reserves of £125,000 to meet existing and committed expenditure in case income is not received. Total funds on 31 December 2024 were £225,932 (2023: 236,264 and 2022: £263,574). 

Of these, £126,203 are currently deposited in a 95-day notice savings account whilst the remaining £114,181 are in current accounts. The Company of Biology has granted in 2024 to the BSCB the freedom to vire funds across funding schemes, allowing maximum flexibility to BSCB activities. 

## **Investment Policy** 

The Executive Committee’s policy at present is to invest in low-risk and reasonably liquid assets, so that funds are available to meet any unforeseen needs that arise because of meeting activities. 

## **Future Plans** 

We are currently planning in person meetings for 2025-2027. The main 2025 Meeting will be the Commemorative CoB 100-year Anniversary Conference (in the UK) with BSCB, SEB and BSDB, which has taken place at the end of March 2025 in Liverpool. The goal is to bring the three societies together in a larger conference covering the three interest areas. Several one-day BSCB-sponsored meetings will also take place in 2025 (e.g., Scottish Cell Biology meeting (Dundee), UK Microtubule meeting (Edinburgh); Inaugural Cell Motility Club Symposium (Cambridge). In 2026, we are planning to organize the Dynamic Cell VI meeting jointly with the Biochemical Society, the Chinese Society for Cell Biology and Royal Microscopy Society. 



P a g e | **7** 

# **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

(CONTINUED) 

## **Executive Committee’s Responsibilities** 

The Executive Committee is responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice. 

Charity law requires the Executive Committee to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Society and of the surplus or deficit for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the Executive Committee have: 

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; 

- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP; 

- make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; 

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and 

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business. 

The Executive Committee has overall responsibility for ensuring that the Society has an appropriate system of controls, financial and otherwise.  It is also responsible for keeping proper accounting records, which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Society.  It is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Society and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. 

Giampietro Schiavo **Trustee** 


Date: 27/05/2025 



Page 18
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF
THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY
I report to the charity trustees I￿ my examinat￿n of the accounts of the Trust (the Trust) for the year ended 31
December 2024.
Respon8ibiliti98 and basis of report
As the chaiity's trustees you are responsible for the preparalmin of the accounts in accordance with the
requirements of the Charities Act 2011 I'lhe Acl'l.
I report in respect of my examination of Ihe Trust's aceounts as carried out under section 145 of the Act and in
carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Direelion5 given by the Charity Commission under
section 1451511bl of the Act.
Indèpèndent èx*min•es ¥tat•m•nt
I have com￿￿ted ry examination. I conffinn that no matters have come to my attentson in connfj¢lion with the
examination gwing me cause to believe that in any material respect.
accoLtnling fecords were not kept in ￿Spect of the Trust as rigquirad by section 130 of tha Act,. or
the accounts do not accord with those recoids.. or
the accounts do not comply with the applicable reqU1￿MentS concerning the fom and conlenl of
accounts Set out in the Charities (Accounts and Report) Regulatsons 2008 other than any requirement
that the accounts give a'true and fair ViW4V' whth is not a matter considerod as part of an independent
examination., or
the accounts hove I￿1 b¢en prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of A¢¢ounling
and Reporting by Charities.. Statement of Recommended Practice applicable lo charities preparing
their accounts in accordance wrth thè Financol Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and thè
Republ￿ of Ireland {FRS 102)
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examinat￿n to which attention
Should be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper understanding of the a¢¢ounts lo be leached.
Miriam Hickson CTA FCA
JCS Accountants Limited
5 Robin Hood Lane
Sutton
Surrey
SM12SW
Date. l￿ JLW Z£>ZS

P a g e | **9** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR TO 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

||**Note**|**Unrestricted**|**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Restricted**|**Total 2024**|**Total 2024**|**Unrestricted**|**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Restricted**|**Total 2023**|**Total 2023**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**Funds**||**Funds**||||**Funds**||**Funds**||||
|**Income from:**||**£**||**£**||**£**||**£**||**£**||**£**||
|Grants|2|35,000||62,500||97,500|||35,000|40,000||75,000||
|Investments|||2,413||-||2,413||255||-||255|
|**_Charitable activities_**||||||||||||||
|Subscriptions||26,110|||-|26,110|||26,610||-|26,610||
|Other income|||-||-||-||1,715||-||1,715|
|**Total income**||63,523||62,500||126,023|||63,580|40,000||103,580||
|**Expenditure on:**||||||||||||||
|**_Charitable activities_**||||||||||||||
|Grants payable:||||||||||||||
|CoB|4||-|48,486||48,486|||-|47,500||47,500||
|Other grants|||6,244||-||6,244||871||-||871|
|Studentships||30,107|||-|30,107|||34,320||-|34,320||
|Medals|||4,732||-||4,732||-||-||-|
|Costs of meetings|||9,596||-||9,596||2,707||-||2,707|
|Website expenses|||539||-||539||1,873||-||1,873|
|Newsletter costs|||4,845||-||4,845||4,734||-||4,734|
|Membership fulfilment||26,924|||-|26,924|||34,198||-|34,198||
|services||||||||||||||
|Examiner’s|||3,522||-||3,522||3,516||-||3,516|
|remuneration||||||||||||||
|Miscellaneous|||492||-||492||354||-||354|
|Subscriptions|||773||-||773||242||-||242|
|Insurance|||95||-||95||575||-||575|
|**Total expenditure**||87,869||48,486||136,355|||83,390|47,500||130,890||
|**Net**||(24,346)||14,014||(10,332)||(19,810)||(7,500)||(27,310)||
|**(expenditure)/income**||||||||||||||
|Transfer between|4||1,324|(1,324)|||-||-||-||-|
|funds||||||||||||||
|**Net movement in**||(23,022)||12,690||(10,332)||(19,810)||(7,500)||(27,310)||
|**funds**||||||||||||||
|Funds brought forward||||||||||||||
|at 1 January 2024||208,242||28,022||236,264||228,052||35,522||263,574||
|**Funds carried**||||||||||||||
|**forward at 31**||185,220||40,712||225,932||208,242||28,022||236,264||
|**December 2024**||||||||||||||





P a g e | **10** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

|**Current assets:**<br>Debtors<br>5<br>Cash at bank and in hand<br>**Liabilities:**<br>_Creditors: amounts falling due in one year_<br>6<br>**Total assets less current liabilities**<br>7<br>**Funds**<br>Restricted funds<br>4<br>Unrestricted funds<br>**Total funds**|**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>700<br>699<br>240,386<br>249,524<br>241,086<br>250,223<br>(15,154)<br>(13,959)<br>225,932<br>236,264<br>40,712<br>28,022<br>185,220<br>208,242<br>225,932<br>236,264|**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>700<br>699<br>240,386<br>249,524<br>241,086<br>250,223<br>(15,154)<br>(13,959)<br>225,932<br>236,264<br>40,712<br>28,022<br>185,220<br>208,242<br>225,932<br>236,264|
|---|---|---|
|||236,264|
|||<br>28,022<br>208,242<br>236,264|



Approved by the Trustees 27/05/2025 and signed on their behalf by: 



Laura Machesky Giampietro Schiavo **Trustee Trustee** 



P a g e | **11** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024** 

## **1. Accounting Policies** 

The Society is constituted under a constitution executed in 1965, and amended in 2014 and in 2022. The Society is a registered charity, number 265816. It’s registered office is C/O Prof G Schiavo, Queen Square Institute of Neurology **,** University College London **,** Queen Square, London WC2N 3BG. The Society meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. 

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows: 

## a) Basis of accounting 

The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the charity’s constitution, the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (Charities SORP (FRS 102)) and Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102). The financial statements are drawn up on the historical cost basis of accounting. The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity and rounded to the nearest £. 

The trustees have prepared detailed forecasts and cashflow projections which they believe are based upon reasonable assumptions. The forecasts show that the charity should be able to operate for the foreseeable future and thus the trustees consider it appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis. 

## b) Funds 

General unrestricted funds represent the funds of the Society that are not subject to any restrictions regarding their use and are available for application on the general purposes of the Society. 

Restricted funds are those subject to specific trusts, which may be declared by the donor or with their authority. The restricted funds of the Society are restricted income funds given for specific purposes, which are expendable at the discretion of the Executive Committee in accordance with particular activities of the Society. 

## c) Income 

Voluntary income and donations (including legacies) are accounted for once the charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable the income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be reliably measured. 

Subscriptions and mailing list sales represent amounts receivable during the year. Meetings income is recognised in the period when the meeting takes place and investment income (which represents interest on National Savings deposits and bank accounts) are the amounts receivable for the year. 

## d) Expenditure 

Expenditure is accrued as soon as a liability is considered probable, discounted to present value for longer term liabilities. 

Certain expenditure is directly attributable to specific activities and has been included in those cost categories. Support and governance costs attributable to more than one activity are apportioned across categories based on an estimate of the proportion of time spent by staff on those activities. 

Grants and awards are accounted for when paid over, or when awarded, if that award creates a binding obligation on the charity. 



P a g e | **12** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024 (continued)** 

## **1. Accounting Policies (continued)** 

## e) Joint arrangements 

Where applicable the share of income and expenditure from joint arrangements to put on meetings in the year is accounted for under the appropriate heading in the Statement of Financial Activities. 

## f) Debtors 

Grants receivable and other debtors are included at the settlement amount due. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid. 

## g) Cash at bank and in hand 

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of opening of the deposit. 

## h) Creditors and provisions 

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation arising from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are recognised at their settlement amount. 

## i) Financial instruments 

The charity only has financial assets and liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value. 

## j) Foreign currency translation 

Transactions in foreign currency are translated at the rate ruling on the date of the transaction. Balances denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated at the year-end, with the gain or loss on retranslation going through the Statement of Financial Activities for the year. 

## **2. Grants received** 

Grants of £97,500 (2023: £75,000) were received from The Company of Biologists during the year. £62,500 (2023: £40,000) of this was restricted as set out in Note 4 below, and £35,000 (2023: £35,000) was unrestricted. 

## **3. Trustees/Officers and employees** 

No Trustees or any person connected with them, received, or is due to receive, any remuneration for the year directly or indirectly from the Society's funds. 

There were eleven Trustees paid in 2024 totalling £6,106 (2023: 5 trustees paid £2,289) in respect of reimbursed travel, subsistence, subscriptions, meetings, website expenses, membership and other expenses during the year. There were Nil third parties paid in 2024 (2023: nil) of costs for the Trustees to attend the Annual Spring Meeting. 1 (2023: nil) Trustee received Travel Grants of £977 (2023: nil). 

The Society has no employees. 



P a g e | **13** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024 (continued)** 

## **4. Restricted funds** 

|**2024**|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Balance b/f**|**Income**||**Expenditure**||**Transfers**|**Balance**|**c/f**|
||**£**|**£**|||**£**|**£**|**£**||
|Company of Biologists|||||||||
|Operational Grant|-|62,500|||(48,486)|26,698|40,712||
|CoB - PI Travel Fund|21,055||-||-|(21,055)||-|
|CoB - Training Course Fund|5,643||-||-|(5,643)||-|
|Abercrombie Conference Fund|1,324||-||-|(1,324)||-|
||28,022|62,500<br>|||(48,486)|(1,324)|40,712||
|**2023**|||||||||
||**Balance b/f**|**Income**|||**Expenditure**|**Transfers**|**Balance**|**c/f**|
||**£**||**£**||**£**|**£**|**£**||
|Abercrombie Conference Fund|1,324||-||-|-|1,324||
|CoB - Honor Fell Travel Fund|-|40,000|||(40,000)|-||-|
|CoB - PI Travel Fund|28,555||-||(  7,500)|-|21,055||
|CoB - Training Course Fund|5,643||-||-|-|5,643||
||35,522|40,000|||(47,500)|-|28,022||



The Company of Biologists Operational Grant are funds to be used for 3 grant types : Honor Fell Travel, PI Travel and Training Course grants. They also permitted previously unspent funds for these type of grants to be transferred into this fund. 

The CoB - Honor Fell Travel Fund relates to funds granted specifically to enable the making of grants to BSCB delegates to cover the costs of travel to meetings of the Society. 

The CoB - PI Travel Fund relates to grants made to BSCB Principal Investigators to enable them to travel to cell biology meetings – not just BSCB meetings, but also other meetings where cell biology is covered. The unspent funds on this fund were transferred to the Operational grant Fund. 

The CoB - Training Course Fund relates to grants made to members to attend training courses. The unspent funds on this fund were transferred to the Operational grant Fund. 

The Abercrombie Conference Fund was money held on behalf of the Trustees of the Abercrombie Conference Fund which will be used to sponsor meetings on cell motility. The transfer in 2024 reflects past expenditure which should have been allocated to this fund. 

Further details of the awards made in the year are given in the Executive Committee’s Report. 



P a g e | **14** 

## **THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024 (continued)** 

|**5.**<br>**Debtors**<br>Prepayments and accrued income<br>**6.**<br>**Creditors due within one year**<br>Accruals and deferred income<br>**7.**<br>**Analysis of net assets by fund**<br>Current assets<br>Current liabilities<br>At 31 December 2024<br>Current assets<br>Current liabilities<br>At 31 December 2023|**Unrestricted**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>200,374<br>(15,154)<br>185,220<br>**Unrestricted**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>222,201<br>(13,959)<br>208,242|<br> <br>|**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>700<br> 699<br>**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>15,154<br>13,959<br>**Restricted**<br>**Total**<br>**Funds**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>40,712<br>241,086<br>-<br>(15,154)<br>40,712<br>225,932<br>**Restricted**<br>**Total**<br>**Funds**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>28,022<br>250,223<br>-<br>(13,959)<br>28,022<br>236,264|**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>700<br> 699<br>**2024**<br>**2023**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>15,154<br>13,959<br>**Restricted**<br>**Total**<br>**Funds**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>40,712<br>241,086<br>-<br>(15,154)<br>40,712<br>225,932<br>**Restricted**<br>**Total**<br>**Funds**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>**£**<br>28,022<br>250,223<br>-<br>(13,959)<br>28,022<br>236,264|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||
|||||225,932|
|||||**Total**<br>**Funds**<br>**£**<br>250,223<br>(13,959)<br>236,264|