Training Grants

For grants to students for attending courses, visit the Training page.

Research Grants

Managed for the Society by the Science and Research Committee, under the Chairmanship of Professor Mick Crawley, this Committee runs a small grants scheme to support research to enhance knowledge of the flora of the British Isles with a special brief to favour young botanists.

The topics that can be funded are:

• Floristic and distributional surveys (e.g. what grows where)
• Taxonomy, systematics and evolution
• History of botany in the British Isles
• Population biology
• Ecological genetics
• Conservation biology
• Ecology, including autecological, physiological and phenological studies
• Plant/animal interactions, including plant biochemistry.

Floristic studies are an important part of the remit of the BSBI and fall within the remit of this scheme. However, we will only fund routine recording or herbarium computerisation where it can be demonstrated that they relate to a clearly stated line of enquiry.

Activities eligible for funding include: travel and subsistence for field-work, visits to herbaria, botanic gardens and other scientific institutions; specimen preparation; scientific equipment, consumables and laboratory services; purchase of hardware and software for data handling; publication costs (preparing camera-ready copy, preparation of illustrations, printing)(but see BSBI Publications fund below).

Activities not eligible for funding include: attendance at conferences/scientific meetings; direct contributions to student grants/salaries.

Tips on preparing an application

All applications should be set in the context of a research question, viz. a clear statement of what the problem is and how the applicant plans to tackle it. This does not necessarily require a formal hypothesis and does not exclude e.g. floristic studies, or recording, or herbarium computerisation. For example, the latter could reveal interesting things about the collecting habits, itineraries or whatever of important botanists in the past. But this should be a clearly stated line of enquiry, with an indication provided as to why it is important to know about such things.

• Describe the background to the study.
• Clearly state the problem or reason for the study.
• Describe what you are going to do, giving an idea of the size of the job where relevant (e.g. sample sizes, etc.)
• If not already obvious, describe the significance and outputs of the work, i.e. what new things we will learn from the study, or what the benefits to the botanical community will be.
• Provide a budget showing exactly what you want to use the funding for.

…. and all on one side of A4!

If this approach is not followed, the resulting application may suffer from lack of focus or contain ambiguities or omissions which will lower its chances of getting funding.

Application procedure

Approximately eight grants per year will be awarded, typically around £500 each (max. £1000). There is one closing date per year (6th February). Awards will be announced within 10 weeks of the closing date.

A completed application form together with one side of A4 detailing the project aims, background, methodology, planned outputs and budget breakdown, should be sent to Alex Lockton. (All applications should be by email, please.)

Successful applicants will be expected to produce a final report outlining the outcomes of their research and to acknowledge the BSBI in any publications stemming from the grant.

Our grants round for 2013 is now closed.

BSBI publications loans/grants

The society makes small loans towards the publication of County Floras, check-lists and the like, typically in the region of £1000, but occasionally up to £2000. These are repayable, along with loans from any other bodies, when all costs have been recovered, but we accept that this may be only possible after a considerable period, if at all.

Application forms are available from the Secretary of Publications Committee, Mr John Poland, 91, Ethelburt Av., Swaythling, Southampton, SO16 3DF

Grants from other organisations

Botanists might be interested in...

British Ecological Society: these grants are made to amateur and professional scientists undertaking surveys of habitats which are threatened or of special ecological interest or which have a history of ecological work.

Bentham-Moxon Trust

Oleg Polunin Memorial Fund

Applications are again invited for awards from The Oleg Polunin Memorial Fund. Full details of the Fund and application details were given in BSBI News 58: 47, Sept. 1991.

Applicants should apply in writing to the Headmaster of Charterhouse at the address below, giving a clear statement about their proposed field studies, where they will be undertaken and when. Priority will be given to applicants with Charterhouse connections but other persons with strong botanical or biological interests will also be considered. The closing date for applications is 1st February each year.

The Headmaster, Charterhouse, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 2DJ

The Botanical Research Fund is a small trust fund which makes modest grants to individuals to support botanical investigations of all types and, more generally, to assist their advancement in the botanical field. Grants are available to amateurs, professionals and students of British and Irish nationality who are resident in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Where appropriate, grants may be awarded to applicants in successive years to a maximum of three. Examples of projects recently supported by the Botanical Research Fund include:

• Development of a vegetative key to the British Flora
• Herbarium research for a monograph of Strobilanthes (Acanthaceae)
• Taxonomic studies of the Coralline algae
• Field surveys of seaweeds, bryophytes and Rubus
• Laboratory work to investigate the status of Gladiolus illyricus in the UK.

The annual deadline for applications is January 31st. Further details may be obtained from Mark Carine, Hon. Secretary, The Botanical Research Fund, c/o Department of Botany, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD. Email:m.carine@nhm.ac.uk

The Wild Flower Society has a small fund from which it is able to make grants in support of botanical projects. Applications should be made to the General Secretary at the address below. They will be considered by our Executive Committee, which meets normally in March and September.

General Secretary, The Wild Flower Society, Mr Steve Parker, 26 Laburnum Road, Wellington, Somerset, TA21 8EL

Wingate Scholarships 2012–2013

Wingate Scholarships are awarded to individuals of great potential or proven excellence who need financial support to undertake creative or original work of intellectual, scientific, artistic, social or environmental value. They are designed to help with the costs of a specific project, which may last for up to three years.  The average total award is £6,500 and the maximum in any one year is £10,000.  There is no upper age limit, and the Scholarship Committee welcomes applications from mature candidates and those from non-traditional academic backgrounds. These awards attempt to provide funding for cross-disciplinary projects that might not fall comfortably into any of the conventional funding categories. We do not offer funding for taught courses. Previous Wingate Scholars are also not eligible.

Applicants must live in the British Isles during the period of application (October 2008 – July 2009) and be citizens of the UK, a Commonwealth country, Ireland or Israel, or an EU citizen that has been resident in the UK for at least 3 years; they must be able to satisfy the Scholarship Committee that they need financial support; they must show why the Project chosen is unlikely to attract Research Council or major agency funding; and they must be 24 years old or more on 1st September 2008.

Details and application materials can be downloaded from the website: www.wingatescholarships.org.uk; or they may be obtained by sending a large A4 SAE to Wingate Scholarships, QABC, 28 Broadway, London, SW1H 9JX.  Closing date for applications is 1st February 2012.

Systematics Research Fund

The Linnean Society of London and the Systematics Association have pooled resources in order to provide a small-grants (<£1500) fund for systematics research, available to all researchers regardless of nationality or society membership. SRF grants are not available for attending conferences or for routine research expenses where other monies would be expected to be available. Applications for funding can only be made by completing the electronic form downloadable from the websites given below and appending a single-side A4 proposal (minimum font size 10 pt) outlining the objectives and methodology of the proposed project, emphasising its broader significance. Where appropriate, please provide (a) starting and completion dates of specific activities, and (b) details and costs of equipment and/or facilities to be funded by the grant.

Applications must be submitted electronically by midnight of 15th December for consideration for awards announced the following March. Further details and electronic forms are downloadable from:            www.systass.org or www.linnean.org.