British Academy Small Grants Scheme
Closing Date: Wednesday 5th November, up to £10,000
One of the most important grant opportunities for BAM Members is the British Academy Small Grant Scheme. The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 months, are provided to cover the cost of the expenses arising from a defined research project.
By far the British Academy’s most popular scheme in terms of applications received and number of awards made, the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants stand as one of the Academy’s highest profile programmes with awards made to academics working at around 100 Institutions around the UK.
These awards, up to £10,000 in value and tenable for up to 24 months, are provided to cover the cost of the expenses arising from a defined research project.
Funded as a public-private partnership, including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Leverhulme Trust and the Wellcome Trust.
The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants are also supported by a number of Special Funds including British Accounting and Finance Association, EY, Honor Frost Foundation, Journal of Moral Education Trust, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Sino-British Fellowship Trust, and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies. (Please note that all applications are considered on their merits equally, and applicants will automatically be considered for funding either from the public funding or the Leverhulme Trust funding - or a Special Fund if applicable.)
The Small Grant Scheme works using a random lottery of applications that pass the bar of being “good”. This randomisation process ensures a lack of bias in allocation, making marginal institutions and marginal fields just as likely to obtain funding as those who are central.
In 2023/24 the British Academy gave more than £400,000 to Management Scholars in the form of more than 40 grants with an applicant’s chance of success at around 25%. It is really important that applications are of good quality, and until now the quality of Management applications has been lower than those of other fields (proportionately fewer pass the bar).
So if you do apply, draft your proposal in good time, circulate it for comments to those who have experience of grant writing, and expect to polish it multiple times before submission.
For more information, and to apply, please visit the British Academy Small Grant Scheme page.