Microgrants

Examples of eligible costs could include:

• Travel costs to attend a conference, visit an archive or conduct an interview
• Registration fees for a conference
• Professional training which would not otherwise be covered by a member’s workplace
• Costs to hire a research assistant to work on a discrete project (hourly rate of pay must be at least equivalent to UK real living wage, or at rates set by your university if these are higher.)
• Costs of creating an online community (eg building a website or blog platform)
• Childcare in order to attend undertake academic work. NB this funding cannot be used to pay for childcare you use regularly but rather for specific additional care
• Costs of a Zoom/Skype/Microsoft Teams subscription to conduct research
• There are many other possible ways to use this funding – we look forward to hearing your innovative ideas

There will be 3 deadlines per year for microgrant applications: 31 March, 31 July and 30 November. Decisions will be announced on 1 May, 1 September and 7 January each year.

Eligibility:

• The applicant must be a member of UACES (PhD Researcher, Early Career or Individual)
• The total amount applied for must be between £100 and £500.
• The microgrant must be for a clear and targeted purpose – this scheme is not designed to supplement a larger funding bid.
• Microgrants are designed to cover activities that have not yet been undertaken. You cannot apply for a retrospective grant.
• Once the work funded by the microgrant has been completed the awardee will need to supply UACES with all receipts related to the grant and a blog post to be published on our Ideas on Europe site prior to reimbursement.
• Microgrants will only be available to members where they are unable to get this financial support from their institution or university.
• Microgrants will not be available to support the work of UACES-funded research networks.
• Microgrants cannot be used to supplement the funding provided for Graduate Forum DTA and research conference attendees.
• The research being undertaken must be in the area of contemporary European Studies

Assessment criteria:

Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

• Clarity and focus of the project
• Quality of the project
• Level of need – ie how much other funding does the researcher have access to?
• Value-added provided by the microgrant

How to apply:

Please send us a CV (no longer than 4 pages) and a covering letter (no longer than 2 pages) outlining:

• The area you are currently researching
• Why you need the microgrant
• How you will use the microgrant
• How it will contribute to your research
• What the particular value-added will be for you of obtaining the microgrant
• A clear budget for what the microgrant will be spent on (this can be separate from your letter)

Please send your application to admin@uaces.org. If you have any questions about the microgrants scheme you can send these to the same address.