Membership

Benefits

By becoming a member you not only support our mission to advance the understanding of past life on Earth through fostering excellence in paleontological research, you will also have access to the following benefits: 

  • Eligibility to apply for funding for research (established researchers, PhDs, undergraduates), postgraduate conference travel, science communication, and support for scientific meetings. See our grants page for further details.
  • Nominate colleagues others and - where allowed - yourself for recognition through our awards schemes.
  • Access to career development opportunities, including our mentorship scheme, career development grants, and webinars focussed on fellowship funding schemes.
  • Receive a physical copy of the Palaeontological Association Newsletter, and access all archive copies as PDFs for free via our webshop.
  • Access all papers in Palaeontology and Papers in Palaeontology hosted by Wiley for free via the members' dashboard.
  • Free access to all archive Palaeontology and Special Papers in Palaeontology papers via our webshop.
  • Generous discounts on all other Association publications, including our Field guides to fossils series.
  • Discounted registration for meetings organised by the Association and priority access to training workshops.
  • Reductions including to: reduced subscription to Geobiology; a discount on Topics in Palaeobiology books; free access to the Treatise online and discounts on physical purchases of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology; discounts on all Transmitting Science courses.
  • Discounts to meetings organised by the International Palaeontological Congress meetings: our IPA corporate membership entitles you to a 10% reduction in the registration fee for IPC7 and subsequent congresses.
  • Joining a community of both professionally trained paleontologists and enthusiasts.

Our membership is open to anyone. 
Anybody over the age of 16 can join the association. Membership is designed to be affordable, with particularly low rates for students, retirees, and individuals from low-income countries to promote inclusivity within the field.

 

Grants Awards

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Renew an Existing Membership

If you would like to renew your membership please login to your online account and follows the renewal link. Please do not use the "Join the Association" link as this will cause duplicate member accounts to be formed. If in any doubt or you are unable to access your online membership account please contact the Executive Officer (executive@palass.org) who will be able to help.

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*Fee Reductions

The Palaeontological Association understands that people from low-income countries have limited means to join international associations. As such, they have less access to up-to-date scientific literature and they benefit less often from grants and awards delivered by these associations. Membership fees (see below) will be reduced by 60% for individuals from Low Income countries as set out by the World Bank (see https://data.worldbank.org/income-level/low-income). This includes people renewing their memberships. We hope that this action will result in an increased geographical presence of the Association and will make our community more diverse and inclusive. 

Contact Us Visit the World Bank website

Conditions of Membership

Membership of the Palaeontological Association is open to any adult who agrees with the charitable and scientific aims of the Association, which are to promote research in Palaeontology and its allied sciences, and who agrees to abide by the conditions of membership of the Palaeontological Association as set out below. 

Members fall into one of the following categories: 

  • Ordinary members (ORD): 
    These are individual members of the Association who are neither students nor retired members.
  • Student members (STU): 
    These are individual members who are registered members of a school, college or university. Study towards a formal educational qualification is their full-time or principal occupation.
  • Undergraduate members (UND): 
    These are undergraduate students doing courses in which Palaeontology is taught at degree level. Normally departments are invited to nominate one individual per year, who receives free membership for the remainder of the year and for the following year.
  • Retired members (RET): 
    These are individual members over 60 years old and not in full-time employment. The annual subscription for Retired members is one half of that for Ordinary members.
  • Honorary members (HON): 
    These are Retired members who have been elected to be Honorary Members by Council, usually on account of substantial services that they have rendered to the Association at some former time. 

All members are eligible to take part in the government of the Association. Membership is open to individuals on payment of the appropriate annual subscription. The subscription covers one calendar year from the 1st Januray–31st December in any given year, with renewal due on January 1st each year. Normally subscription reminders are sent out to all members with the final Newsletter of the previous year. 

All members will receive all parts of the Newsletter for the calendar year in which they have paid their subscription and electronic access to the journals. New members who join after August in any given year will be signed up for the following year, but will be regarded as members of the Association from the day that their payment is accepted. 

Membership entitles members to access to meetings, on payment of the members’ registration fee, organised by the Association and by the Joint Committee for Palaeontology, and to the purchase of Palaeontology back issues and other Association publications at a reduced rate. 

Individual members can apply to the Association for funds to aid their palaeontological research and to organise meetings, through the Small Grants, Grants-in-aid and Research Grants schemes. Details can be found on the Association's website. 

All members agree to be the professional stands laid out in the Code of Conduct.