Abstract
We prove that the KLR algebra associated with the cyclic quiver of length $e$ is a subquotient of the KLR algebra associated with the cyclic quiver of length $e+1$. We also give a geometric interpretation of this fact. This result has an important application in the theory of categorical representations. We prove that a category with an action of $\widetilde{\mathfrak{sl}}_{e+1}$ contains a subcategory with an action of $\widetilde{\mathfrak{sl}}_{e}$.We also give generalizations of these results to more general quivers and Lie types.