MDAnalysis User Group Meeting 2025

[IAlibay]

Project

MDAnalysis

Summary

This proposal seeks funding for the MDAnalysis 2025 user group meeting (https://www.mdanalysis.org/pages/ugm2025/). Funds will help us waive registration costs for attendees, provide travel bursaries for attendees, and allow multiple members of our developer team to participate in the event.

submitter

Irfan Alibay

project lead

@IAlibay

Community benefit

The MDAnalysis core development team is requesting $10,000 from the NumFOCUS Small Development Grant program to support our 2025 User Group Meeting (UGM). This funding is crucial for ensuring the accessibility and continued growth of our project.

The MDAnalysis UGM is a vital annual event that brings together our diverse community of users, developers, and aspiring contributors. Historically, these meetings have been free to attend, fostering an inclusive environment for learning and collaboration. The 2023 and 2024 UGMs were instrumental in identifying and nurturing the next generation of MDAnalysis developers (some of which are now core developers), significantly contributing to the project’s sustainability.

Unfortunately, our current NSF CSSI grant provides only partial funding for the 2025 UGM. This shortfall has forced us to introduce a $100 registration fee, a departure from our commitment to free access to our events and workshops. This is partly because the grant offers only limited travel funds for key presenters and core developers at the UGM, which is both restricting the content we can present to UGM attendees and limits direct interactions with our user base. The CSSI grant provides minimal funds for travel bursaries ($500 for five US-based attendees), which is insufficient to cover the full cost of attendance, particularly for international participants. These bursaries are vital to promoting diversity and inclusivity at our UGMs, which we view as a core value of the MDAnalysis community. Finally, whilst we aim for the UGM to be hybrid, allowing those that cannot make it to the US to attend virtually, we have no funds available for audio-visual support which is crucial to offering a good virtual attendance experience.

The $10,000 will directly address these critical needs:

1. Waive registration fees: This will allow us to revert to a free registration model, ensuring the UGM remains accessible to all.
2. Supplement travel bursaries for attendees from underrepresented groups who are facing financial barriers to attendance: This will significantly enhance our existing travel support, allowing us to fully cover the attendance costs for at least five US-based attendees and up to two international attendees.
3. Support developer attendance: This will enable a larger portion of our development team, particularly non-US developers, to attend the UGM. Direct interaction with users is invaluable for understanding their needs, gathering feedback, inspiring the next generation of developers, and ultimately improving the MDAnalysis library.
4. Pay for audio-visual support for virtual attendance: This will enable us to pay for professional support for streaming the UGM. This will significantly improve the experience for virtual attendees and improve our ability to reach a more global audience

Impact on MDAnalysis if funded
The funding will have a profound impact on the MDAnalysis project itself. By waiving registration fees and providing travel support and hybrid attendance options, we can attract a larger and more diverse group of attendees. This increased participation directly translates to more opportunities to train new users, deepen existing user knowledge, and, critically, foster future core developers. Past experiences show that the UGM serves as a fertile ground for “scouting” and mentoring willing individuals who can contribute to the project’s long-term health. Ensuring the presence of a larger portion of the MDAnalysis development team is therefore key to facilitating these invaluable direct interactions with UGM attendees. Furthermore, the direct user to developer interactions are essential for understanding real-use challenges, identifying pain points, and prioritizing development efforts, ultimately leading to a more robust and impactful MDAnalysis library.

Impact to the wider community
Beyond the direct benefits to MDAnalysis, this funding will have significant positive impact on the wider scientific community, particularly molecular simulation. By keeping the UGM free and offering comprehensive travel support and options for hybrid attendance, we are actively breaking down financial barriers to participating in scientific software training and development. The hackathons and tutorials held during the UGM will equip attendees with practical skills in data analysis, scientific programming, and contributing to open-source projects, empowering them to develop and utilize future computational tools.

Amount requested

10000

Execution plan

The MDAnalysis UGM will be held on November 9-11th 2025. Registration is already open, but registration fees have not yet been collected from attendees.

All work will be done by the UGM organizing committee (Oliver Beckstein, Hugo MacDermott-Opeskin, Jennifer Clark, Jenna M Swarthout Goddard, and Irfan Alibay). Additional help will also be obtained from the MDAnalysis core developer team as necessary.

Waiving registration fees

As soon as the grant is awarded, we will update our materials to advertise that the UGM is now fully free to attend. We will also message any existing registrants to let them know that they will no longer be required to pay an attendance fee.

Travel bursaries

As part of our existing registration process we already include several questions for registrants to let us know about any support needs they might need and offer them an opportunity to apply for a travel bursary. We aim to review these applications on a rolling basis, starting from July 15th, and allocate travel bursaries as necessary based on evaluation of provided responses by the UGM organizing committee. We aim to prioritize funding for individuals who self-identify as members of underrepresented groups and who report financial hardship in attending the UGM. Up to $5000 of the requested SDG funds will be used for travel bursaries, prioritizing at least 5 US attendees and up to 2 international attendees. Any remaining funds will be used to support as many of the remaining attendees as possible.

Audio-visual support for virtual attendance

Up to $2000 of the requested SDG funds will be used for AV support at the UGM. We will be working with the local AV team at Arizona State University to help make this happen.

Support for developer attendance

Remaining funds (minimum of $3000) will be used to support travel costs for key MDAnalysis developers. These developers will be deeply involved with the UGM, presenting their work to the audience as well as organizing tutorials and hackathons. We aim to have at least 4 US developers and 2 international developers attend the UGM.