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2025-07-31-accounts

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED

31 JULY 2025

Charity Number (England and Wales): 270363 Charity Number (Scotland): SC038647

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

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025

Trustees

Prof. Marysia Placzek - Chairman Prof. Tristan Rodriguez - Secretary Dr Thomas Bennett - Treasurer

Charity Number: 270363

Principal Office

16 Lycett Road, York, YO24 1NB

Website

www.bsdb.org

Independent Examiners

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

Bankers

Barclays, 8/9 Hanover Square, London W1S 1HH

Investment Managers

Baillie Gifford & Co., Calton Square, 1 Greenside Row, Edinburgh EH1 3AN

Structure, Governance and Management

The Society is a registered charity, number 270363, that was originally constituted in 1969 and the constitution was last amended on 13 February 2014. The Society was initially established as the London Embryology Club in 1948; it became the Society for Developmental Biology in 1964, with the first meeting hosted by Sir John Gurdon, FRS, in Oxford. In 1969, it became the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB). The Society obtained Charity status on 18 November 1975. The Society is funded by membership subscriptions and also by an annual donation from the Company of Biologists, the publishers of the scientific journals Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology. The Society acts to promote the furtherance of research in Developmental Biology in the UK by holding an annual research conferences and providing grants to its members to attend the Society’s research meeting and additional research meetings. The Society currently has 776 verified Members.

The Trustees hold the offices of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of the Society and are appointed by the Society Committee. Each Trustee holds that position whilst serving as an Officer and their term is limited to five years. No Officer of the Society can hold the same office for more than five years; thus a trustee can only be reappointed by appointment by the Society Committee to a new office.

The trustees are part of the eighteen-member Executive Committee which meets bi-annually to agree broad strategy and areas of activity, including consideration of future research meetings, grant awarding policy, investment, reserves management, policies and performance. Trustees are trained through ‘shadowing’ the outgoing trustee in the same post, during their final year in office. Trustees carry out the day-to-day management of the charity with the aid of administrative support in place at their primary academic institutions and a Committee elected by the Society membership (http://bsdb.org/about-us/).

The members of the Executive Committee are elected by the members of the Society at the Annual General Meeting. Each Executive Committee member serves a period of five years and can be reappointed, but only on the assumption of the position of Officer. The Executive Committee has six Officers, Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Meetings Officer, Communications Officer and Medals Officer.

Appointment to an Officer position is made by the Committee from serving members of the Committee. No trustee, officer or committee member receives remuneration for their services.

1

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

Structure, Governance and Management (continued)

The members of the Executive Committee for 2024-2025 were:

Prof. M. Placzek - Chairman Prof. T. Rodriguez - Secretary Dr T. Bennett – Treasurer Prof. Shankar Srinivas - Meetings Secretary Dr R. Das - Communications Officer Dr A. Tucker – Medals Officer (since Spring 2025) Ms. A. Guzman Herrera - Graduate Representative (since Spring 2025) Dr. D. Mouzourou - PostDoc Representative (since Spring 2025) Prof. J. Green Dr K. Campbell Dr H. Weavers Dr A. Tsakiridis Prof. A. Tucker Dr V. Azuara Dr D. Turner Dr V. Metzis Dr A. Rodrigo-Albors Dr T. Saunders

Objectives and Activities

The objectives of the Society are to promote and advance the research, teaching and public education of developmental biology in the United Kingdom by organising research meetings, awarding grants to individuals and organisations and representing the interests of its members.

The aims of the Society are:

The objectives for the year are shaped by these aims with a view to use the Society’s annual income in the furtherance of the objects of the Society.

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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

Grant Making Policy

The Society invites members of the Society to apply for grants to attend the Society’s meetings, international meetings or courses. The conditions for these awards and the application forms are available on the Society’s website, www.bsdb.org

Achievements and Performance

The Society’s main function is to run scientific meetings in the field of developmental biology and to provide grants to its members. The Society remains vibrant with a verified paying membership of 776 at the end of July 2025, representing a steady maintenance of our membership, despite the increasingly challenging environment for securing funding for recruitment of students and postdocs to labs in the UK and worldwide. The financial situation of the Society remains buoyant, despite the turbulent financial markets and our position is allowing us to continue our activities to promote developmental biology, described below.

Report on the financial year 2024-25

The society has three primary sources of income. Firstly, annual subscription fees paid by our members which amounted to £24,572 this year (2023-24: £29,670), alongside small donations made by members of the community (£8,220). Secondly, funds received from Company of Biologists (CoB), which are essential to the running of our Society and our charitable activities. For 2024-25 we received an unrestricted block grant of £45,000, plus restricted grants of £32,500 and £30,000 for our CoB Travel Grant fund and CoB Practical Course Grant fund respectively. We chose not to receive any funds for our restricted CoB Principal Investigator Travel Grant fund this year. Thirdly, the profits that we make by holding our annual Spring Meeting. However, our Spring Meeting in 2025 was part of the larger ‘Company of Biologists @100’ meeting held in Liverpool, which was paid for by CoB. We therefore made no profit or loss on our spring meeting this year (2023-24: £980 surplus). Other sources of income are interest on our savings, and funds realised from investments (£9,808). In this financial year, we realised £40,000 of funds from our Baillie-Gifford fund, as discussed further below.

Over the past few financial years, we have been overspending on our unrestricted funds in order to support community activities. Conversely, we have been underspending on our restricted funds. Our restricted funds have previously only been eligible to support overseas travel for individual members, and our underspend in this area reflects the decline in international travel taken by our members, which is likely due to heightened environmental concerns, as well as the unstable global geo-political climate. Conversely, our overspend on our unrestricted funds reflects the increasing popularity of domestic travel by our members, and particularly applications for support to attend our Spring Meeting.

We therefore requested and received permission from CoB for a ‘change of use’ for our accumulated restricted funds, which allowed us to spend our CoB Travel Grant fund on both international and domestic travel, and our CoB Course Grant fund on additional Gurdon Studentships. Together with not holding an annual meeting this year, this has allowed us to dramatically reduce our spending on unrestricted funds. This, together with the gains on our investments (£40,000 of which were realised this year), has allowed us to stabilize the balance of our unrestricted funds, which at the end of 2024-25 stood at £818,124.

Overall, our income for 2024-25 was £150,100 (2023-24: £317,420), and our expenditure was £145,683 (2023-24: £340,680), giving a surplus, for 2025 of £92,899 (2023-24: £44,570 surplus). However, the surplus includes the unrealised investment gains, and accruing a surplus this financial year was necessary to restore the balance of our unrestricted funds.

We had three main types of expenditure in 2024-25. Firstly, costs relating to administration of the society which amounted to £45,428 (2023-24: £25,252). Since 2022 our Society has used the professional services of Hg3 to manage our membership, and in 2024-25, we spent £11,986 (2023-24: £12,753) on Hg3 handling costs. Membership handling by Hg3 ensures smooth-running accounting and maintaining an up-to-date database, which are essential for effective communications and membership status checks to issue grants.

3

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

Report on the financial year 2024-25 (continued)

Other administrative items include reimbursement of committee members’ expenses, accountancy costs and bank charges. Secondly, costs for the award of prizes to our members, include costs associated with our Wolpert Medal, which amounted to £1,147 (2023-24: £42). Thirdly, the awards of grants to our members, which amounted to £99,108 (2023-24: £64,275), which are further described below.

In 2024-25, we awarded £15,876 in cash grants (55 grants) to members who had applied for support to attend our Spring Meeting as part of the CoB@100 meeting. These grants were smaller than in previous years (2023-24: 29 grants totalling £17,765). As discussed above, these costs were vired to our CoB Travel Grant fund by the agreement of Company of Biologists. We had to separately reimburse CoB for the registration charges for these members (£21,786). There was some confusion as to whether we would pay these costs or not, and we were only invoiced for them in December 2025, 9 months after the meeting. However, these costs have been included in the 2024-25 accounts since they are materially relevant to that financial year. Their inclusion does affect the overall balance of income/expenditure for the 2024-25 accounts, but this will be balanced by reduced expenditure in financial year 2025-26. We received no applications for our BSDB Disability Support Grant (launched in 2022) in 2024-25, but we did receive and fund two applications for our BSDB Childcare Grant (£416). Both grant schemes aim to help members offset additional costs incurred to participate in our Spring meetings. We believe such initiatives, promoting and enabling inclusivity are worthwhile to maintain, but recognise the need to better advertise them.

Our Gurdon Summer Studentships are designed to support undergraduate students to undertake lab-based internships in developmental biology research groups, as part of their developing careers. With the support of additional funds by agreement of Company of Biologists (above), we were able to fund 20 studentships (typically 8 weeks in duration) in 2024-25 at a total cost of £52,360 (2023-24: 7 studentships totalling £17,680). We also made 3 grants of £1,200 each to support our community holding 3 BSDB-affiliated development biology ‘focus meetings’ in the summer or autumn of 2025 (2023-24: £2,400). These meeting were hosted in Warwick, Sheffield and London.

In terms of grants supported by restricted funds from Company of Biologists, this year we awarded 30 CoB Travel Grants totalling £14,986 to support the attendance/travel of our members at overseas meetings (202324: 37 grants totalling £16,270). We awarded 13 CoB Principal Investigator Travel Grants totalling £8,270 (2023-24: 8 grants totalling £4,919). We awarded 6 CoB Practical Course Grants in 2024-25, but unfortunately 2 applicants were ultimately unable to travel to their courses, and thus our expenditure was only £3,600 on 4 grants (2023-24: 6 grants totalling £5,720).

Our Legal and General and Baillie Gifford funds, the main vehicles for the Society’s reserves, have once again yielded unrealised gains; The Legal and General investments increased by over 15.4% in unrealised value, the Baillie Gifford funds increased by 5.1% (combined gain between both funds 7.5%). This is in line with current international market trends, having reached their pre-pandemic value, and we hope that a continued upward trend will see our assets grow in the longer term. The Society continues to have a healthy reserve to cope with unforeseen events such as the cancellation of a meeting as previously experienced during the pandemic. The reserves continue to allow us to invest in new activities to promote developmental biology, without any significant threat to the core business of the Society. The other expenditure items were in line with previous years.

Public Benefit

The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission. The Society aims to promote and advance education of developmental biology in the United Kingdom. We provide a general public benefit by increasing awareness, knowledge and education of the science behind the embryonic and post-embryonic development of plants and animals. In particular we facilitate the training of scientists and advancement of knowledge by organising scientific research meetings and support young scientists by

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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

Public Benefit (continued)

provision of grants to attend research meetings and courses, as well as summer studentships. Through this we increase the UK’s knowledge and expertise and so provide public benefit. The majority of our income is returned as grants to developmental biology scientists who are members of the Society. This restriction of beneficiaries is to ensure that funds are made available to those in a position to best further the Society’s aims. The Society charges a membership fee of £20 for trainee scientists and £45 for professional members. These fees provide us with an income that we distribute to further our aims.

Risk Management

The charity trustees have considered the major risks to which the charity is exposed and have reviewed those risks. The trustees consider variability of income from membership subscriptions and the reliance on the donation from the Company of Biologists as the major risks. We also commit funds to organising meetings and there is always a risk of event failure due to activities beyond our control (pandemic, air travel, weather related, etc.) which would lead to the Society having to honour these commitments and subsequent loss of income. The Society regularly reviews membership numbers and takes this into consideration when planning the levels of grants it may make and when setting registration fees for Society Meetings. The Society maintains sufficient reserves that it may operate for at least three years should the Company of Biologists not renew its annual donation. We have also increased the number of joint meetings we hold with other academic societies (both in the UK and abroad). This both increases the potential market for our meetings and enables us to share the financial risks. This has so far proven to be a successful strategy. We have sufficient reserves to ensure the Society can function for at least 3 years in the event of a major deleterious event.

Financial Review

The Society is reliant on the income from its members and the grant it receives from the Company of Biologists. The membership income is remaining relatively steady. We have made concerted efforts to update our membership database and to encourage lapsed members to pay subscriptions, and membership subscriptions have not increased over this time period (2011-12 income £32,392; 2012-13 income £33,394; 2013-14 income £36,545; 2014-15 income £34,093; 2015-16 income £34,075, 2016-17 income £34,600, 2017-18 £36,204, 2018-19 £35,145, 2019-20 £34,404, 2020-21 £31,494, 2021-22 income £31,591, 2022-23 income £30,544; 2034-24 income £29,670; 2024-25 income £24,572). Company of Biologists provides a grant in support of the Society to £45,000. This level of income allows us to maintain our charitable activity, achieving our aim of awarding grants to all our members requesting such assistance. In 2024-25 this was awarded in full. We aim to distribute as much of our income as possible, while maintaining the financial health of the Society.

Investment Policy and Performance

The Society annually reviews its investments which until 2011 were managed solely by Baillie Gifford. In 2011 we used the surplus achieved via our hosting a major international conference in 2009 to increase our investments using a vehicle run by Legal & General (L&G Global 100 Index Trust), an index linked trust, with the aim of spreading our investment to increase security. In addition, using surplus gained over the previous two years, in 2013 we further increased our investment in the Baillie Gifford fund. Both funds are invested in a portfolio with low to medium risk and all returns are re- invested in the fund. There are no restrictions on the Society’s power to invest. On July 31st 2025, the Society held £65,170 in a high interest Barclays account, where the return for 2024-25 was 1.1%.

Reserves Policy

At the year-end, the charity held total reserves of £871,496 of which £66,898 were restricted and £804,598 were unrestricted. The Society maintains sufficient reserves that it may operate for at least two years without any reduction in its charitable expenditure should the Society’s income decline significantly.

5

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

Plans for the future

The last few years have seen disruptions to our meeting schedule, with our main meeting occurring in autumn 2023 as the European Developmental Biology Congress. While we returned to having our ‘normal’ BSDB spring meeting in 2024, there was no separate BSDB meeting in 2025 due to the Company of Biologists@100 meeting (discussed above). For 2026, we will return to having a ‘normal’ spring meeting in at our usual location at the University of Warwick. Not holding this meeting seems to affect our membership recruitment, so from 2026, we aim to stabilise our meeting schedule with a fixed spring meeting in Warwick, ideally in partnership with BSCB. We will continue to provide funds to support the running of BSDB-affiliated focus meetings in the summer/autumn of each year, which should cover a range of geographical locations and topics. We will continue to award Gurdon Summer Studentships to attract students into developmental biology laboratories over the summer vacation, with the aim of setting them on track for future PhDs. Previous sources of funding for these types of activities have come under severe strain and there is a fear that fewer undergraduates are considering developmental biology as a career option. Outreach activities will be continued by the Society and we will further use our new web-portal to extend our reach via digital media.

Starting in 2022, the Society decided to outsource handling of its membership to a professional company, Hg3, with which the Society has a long-standing relationship with respect to conference organisation. We have experienced an increase in operating costs. To mitigate this, increases in membership fees (£5 increase for trainee scientists, £10 increase for professional members) were agreed at the BSDB AGM in April 2024.

Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the charity’s financial activities during the year and of its financial position at the end of the year. In preparing financial statements giving a true and fair view, the trustees follow best practice and:

The trustees are responsible for keeping accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the charity, and which enable them to ascertain the financial position of the charity and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 1993, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations and the provisions of the trust deed. The trustees are responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Dr Tom Bennett Treasurer 20 February 2026

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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Trust for the year ended 31 July 2025.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (the ‘2005 Act’), the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). You are satisfied that your charity is not required by charity law to be audited and have chosen instead to have an independent examination.

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts as carried out under section 44 (1) ( c) of the 2005 Act and section 145 of the 2011 Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed the requirements of Regulation 11 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

Since the Trust has prepared its accounts on an accruals basis and is also registered in Scotland, your examiner must be a member of a body listed in Regulation 11(2) of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). I can confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a registered member of the ICAEW which is one of the listed bodies.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 44 (1) (a) of the 2005 Act and Regulation 4 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and section 130 of the 2011 Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or

  3. the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements Regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Miriam Hickson

Miriam Hickson CTA FCA JCS Accountants Limited 5 Robin Hood Lane Sutton Surrey SM1 2SW

Date: 20 February 2026

7

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025

Unrestricted
Restricted
Funds
Funds
Note
£
£
Income from:
Donations and grants
2
77,792
62,500
Investments
3
9,808
-
Charitable activities
4
-
-
Total income
87,600
62,500
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
5
75,751
69,932
Total expenditure
75,751
69,932
Net gains/(losses) on
investments
6
88,482
-
-
-
Net (expenditure)/income
100,331
(7,432)
Transfers Between Funds
9
-
-

Net movement in funds
100,331
(7,432)
Funds brought forward at 1
August 2024
704,267
74,330
-
-
Funds carried forward at 31
July 2025
804,598
66,898		 Total
Unrestricted
Restricted
2025
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
140,292
64,670
62,500
9,808
8,651
-
-
181,599
-
150,100
254,920
62,500
145,683
288,897
51,783
145,683
288,897
51,783
88,482
67,830
-

-
-
-
92,899
33,853
10,717
-
2,457
(2,457)
92,899
36,310
8,260
778,597
667,957
66,070
-
-
-
871,496
704,267
-
74,330		 Total
2024
£
127,170
8,651
181,599
317,420
340,680
340,680
67,830
-
44,570
-
44,570
734,027
-
778,597

8

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 JULY 2025

Note
Fixed assets
Investments
6
Current assets
Cash at bank and in hand
Debtors
7
Creditors
Amounts falling due within one year
8
(
Net current assets
Total assets less current liabilities
10
Represented by:
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
9		 2025
£
73,893
28
73,921
26,182)


 £
823,757
47,739
871,496
804,598
66,898
871,496		 2024
£
£
766,144
17,264
28
17,292
(4,839)
12,453
778,597
704,267
74,330
778,597

These financial statements were approved by the members of the Committee on 20 February 2026 and signed on their behalf by:

Dr T Bennett

Prof. M Placzek

9

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of accounting

The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Charities act 2011, 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 as modified by the revaluation of investments. The Society meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the Committee have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus they continue to adopt the going concern basis of accountancy in preparing the financial statements.

Income

Expenditure

All expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis as soon as a liability is considered probable and is recognised when there is a legal or constructive obligation to pay. Expenditure has been classified under the headings that aggregate all costs related to that category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of the resources.

Expenditure includes attributable VAT that cannot be recovered.

Investments

Investments are included in the balance sheet at their market value on that date. Unrealised revaluation gains are included in the Statement of Financial Activities. Investment income is credited to the income and expenditure account, and is inclusive of any income tax recoverable thereon.

Debtors

Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid.

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.

10

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES (continued)

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.

Funds

Unrestricted funds represent the funds of the charity that are not subject to any restrictions regarding their use, and are available for application to the general purposes of the charity. Funds designated for a particular purpose by the charity are also unrestricted. Designations are shown as a transfer from undesignated to designated funds.

Restricted funds are those amounts given for specific purposes, which may be declared by the donor or with their authority.

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.

2 DONATIONS AND GRANTS

Unrestricted
Restricted
Funds
Funds
£
£
Membership
24,572
-

Donations
8,220
-
Block Grant: Company of Biologists
45,000
-
Restricted Grants: Company of Biologists
-
62,500

77,792
62,500
1		 Total
2025
£
24,572
8,220
45,000
62,500
40,292
 Total
2024
£
29,670
-
35,000
62,500
127,170
Unrestricted
Restricted
Funds
Funds
£
£
UK quoted investments
9,131
-
Bank interest receivable
677
-

9,808
-

COME FROM MEETINGS
Unrestricted
Restricted
Funds
Funds
£
£
Autumn meeting
-
-
Spring meeting
-
-

-
-
 Total
2025
£
9,131
677
9,808

Total
2025
£
-

-
-
 Total
2024
£
8,242
409
8,651
Total
2024
£
107,780
73,819
181,599

4 INCOME FROM MEETINGS

11

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

5 EXPENDITURE

Unrestricted
Restricted
Funds
Funds
£
£
Grants to individuals
25,576
54,056
Autumn meeting costs
-
-
Spring meeting costs
21,786
15,876
Membership handling costs
11,986
-
Film costs
-
-
Costs of trustees’ meetings
3,800
-
Prizes
1,147
-
Office costs and insurance
3,805
-
Focus meetings
3,600
-
Subscriptions
775
-
Refunds of overpayments
-
-
72,475
69,932

Governance – Independent Examination
3,276
-
75,751
69,932
 Total
2025
£
79,632
-
37,662

11,986
-
3,800
1,147
3,805
3,600
775
-
142,407

3,276

145,683
 Total
2024
£
44,589
152,743
110,312
12,753
5,342
2,275
42
6,234
2,400
775
50
337,515
3,165
340,680

No remuneration has been paid to employees, including the trustees and members of the Committee, during the year.

During the year, travel expenses and other meeting costs of £3,742 (2024: £162) were refunded to 1 (2024: 1) trustee.

6

FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS

Listed UK investments
At 1 August 2024
Income reinvested
Disposals
Net unrealised investment gains

Market value at 31 July 2025

Historic cost as at 31 July 2025
 2025
£
766,144
9,131
(40,000)
88,482

823,757

163,689
 2024
£
690,072
8,242
-
67,830
766,144
194,557

The investments are held in the Baillie Gifford Managed Fund and the Legal & General Unit Trust.

7 DEBTORS

Prepayments
8
CREDITORS: amounts falling due within one year
Other creditors
Accruals		 2025
£
28
28
2025
£
21,786
4,396
26,182
2024
£
28
28
2024
£
-
4,839
4,839

12

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

9 RESTRICTED FUNDS

RESTRICTED FUNDS
Balance at Fund Balance at
1 August Income Expenditure Transfers 31 July
2024 2025
£ £ £ £ £
Travel Grants Fund 18,293 32,500 (30,862) - 19,931
PI Support Grant 26,757 - (8,270) - 18,487
Practical Course Grant 4,280 30,000 (30,800) - 3,480
Dennis Summerbell Award 25,000 - - - 25,000
Total 74,330 62,500 (69,932) - 66,898
Balance at Fund Balance at
1 August Income Expenditure Transfers 31 July
2023 2024
£ £ £ £
Louie Hamilton Fund 2,457 - - (2,457) -
Travel Grants Fund 26,937 32,500 (41,144) - 18,293
PI Support Grant 11,676 20,000 (4,919) - 26,757
Practical Course Grant - 10,000 (5,720) - 4,280
Dennis Summerbell Award 25,000 - - - 25,000
Total 66,070 62,500 (51,783) (2,457) 74,330

The Louie Hamilton fund is restricted to funding awards to enable disabled members of the Society to attend meetings of the Society. These funds were expended in previous years and the transfer in 2024 reflects this.

The Travel Grants fund is restricted to fund travel grants to enable BSDB members to attend domestic and overseas scientific meetings and courses.

The Principal Investigator Support Grant is restricted to fund travel grants to also enable BSDB members to attend overseas scientific meetings and courses.

Practical Course Grant is a dedicated award to support travel to practical courses and training courses in other countries of the world. This year its use was widened to include Gurdon Studentships.

The Dennis Summerbell Award provides support for travel and registration at the Autumn BSDB Meeting.

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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2025 (continued)

10 ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS

Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds		 Investments
Net current
assets
Total
2025
£
£
£
823,757
(19,159)
804,598
-
66,898
66,898
823,757
47,739
871,496
Investments
Net current
assets
Total
2024
£
£
£
766,144
(61,877)
704,267
-
74,330
74,330
766,144
12,453
778,597

11 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

There were no related party transactions during the year (2024: None) except as disclosed in Note 5.

14