[09-04-2020]

Update on registration refunds

The refund policy for the UQ20 meeting has been agreed upon as follows:

Registrants receive a reimbursement of the registration fee minus processing costs. This processing cost is equal to 10% of the registration payment, and the maximum is equal to 50 EUR per registration. It is used to cover any cost the organization of UQ20 has already incurred and which isn't covered otherwise - neither by TUM, SIAM, nor DFG.

The local organizers will waive the processing fee for registrants who have incurred a significant personal financial hardship due to the conference cancellation. However, resources are limited and matters will be determined based on immediate financial need. Affected parties are asked to submit a justified request to the conference office at siam-uq2020 (at) tum.de by April 30, 2020.

In all other cases the refunds will be processed automatically and there is no need to submit a request to the conference office. The reimbursement will be done in the same way as the payment, and will be returned to the credit card or to the bank account used for the booking. The estimate is that this will take 10 business days.

[13-03-2020, 14:30]

Information on registration refunds

We are reviewing the situation, and are consulting with the relevant bodies at TUM, DFG and SIAM. Since TUM is shutting down its services due to the coronavirus outbreak, this process takes more time than anticipated, unfortunately. To help us focus on working out the details of the refund, we kindly ask you to refrain from contacting the conference office individually by email or phone. We will provide information as soon as we are able to. Thank you for your understanding!

[07-03-2020, 18:30]

Dear UQ20 participants,

With deep regret we must inform you that the upcoming UQ20 meeting cannot take place as scheduled and planned due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. Please be aware that this decision was a very hard one to make in this rapidly changing and very complex situation. During the process we had been in close contact with SIAM and all committees. Below we list some of the issues that we considered in order to make this difficult decision.

Currently we are working with SIAM to determine alternative plans, such as rescheduling for a future date, or providing electronic options to hold a virtual conference. This takes some time, and we kindly ask for your patience until we have further information. Please be assured that we work intensely on the clarification of open questions, and we will let you know as soon as we have further information.

Some considerations for cancelling the UQ20 meeting at TUM:

• Many participants cannot attend UQ20 since their institutions do not allow them to travel internationally due to the worsening coronavirus outbreak. Among them are NASA, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, New York University, MIT, KAUST, and NUS – and more are expected to follow. Moreover, participants traveling from outside Germany to UQ20 may experience difficulties in returning. This leads to an increasing number of last minute talk cancellations, including plenary and mini-tutorial speakers.
• To date we have several registered participants from risk regions as identified by the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI).  Attendees traveling from risk areas to UQ20 have to report to the German authorities upon arrival. Some host institutions started to un-invite such participations, however this is not in line with the understanding of tolerance and respect at TUM.
• Unfortunately, an improvement of the situation over the next couple of weeks cannot be expected, and we expect that the total number of active cases in the region has not yet reached its peak.
• In an announcement made on 05 March 2020, TUM recommends to cancel meetings with more than 1,000 attendees. UQ20 with nearly 800 registered participants, 80 onsite registrations (expected) and many more people involved in the technical, administrative and catering support reaches this limit. Moreover, it takes place in a large public university building where a lot of students and staff of TUM work and study, and access cannot be monitored. The recommendations of the health authorities and precautionary measures are changing everyday and not all can be fulfilled.

Given these recent developments and the unpredictable situation with the coronavirus, and to protect the health and well-being of all of us, we conclude that the meeting in Garching cannot be held as planned. We offer our sincere apologies for having no other news. For all of us it is a tremendous disappointment.

Elisabeth Ullmann

On  behalf of the local conference organizers

Hans-Joachim Bungartz

Frank Jenko

Phaedon-Stelios Koutsourelakis

Tobias Neckel

Iason Papaioannou

Daniel Straub

Barbara Wohlmuth