SLAS makes available up to 15 grants worth up to £1000 each to postgraduate and postdoctoral members to support research costs (e.g. travel for fieldwork or visiting archives, purchasing image rights, indexing, translation costs, co-production of outputs etc.).
To be eligible an applicant must be a member of SLAS.
Postgraduate applicants must be based at a UK institution of higher education, but may be of any nationality.
Postdoctoral applicants must have been awarded their PhD within the last 4 years (i.e. from graduation date), and must normally be based at a UK institution of higher education and should not be in full-time, permanent academic employment.
Applicants should complete the form, taking note of the requirement for a referee’s statement of support.
Please note that funds are limited, and that the maximum grant available to each applicant is £1000. Priority will be given to applicants with no access to institutional support and for the postdoctoral bursaries, those in precarious employment.
SLAS will not consider applications for trips that commence within one month of the deadline for submission of applications. Applications in which the main or sole purpose of a trip is to attend a conference will not be considered; however, if you are presenting at a conference as part of a wider research trip, this will be eligible for support. Applications should clearly outline the specific purpose of the trip, justifying the length of stay, as well as any other costs included in the application.
SLAS is happy to support costs related to caring responsibilities (for example costs towards the provision of additional care required in your absence, travel costs for accompanying children) as part of our grant applications. In the outline budget, please do feel free to include any such costs as part of the application.
SLAS will support the purchase of equipment to enable applicants to undertake or complete their research. Where equipment is included within the budget, please ensure you clearly explain how it will be used and why the purchase is necessary in the justification for resources.
SLAS has acknowledged the climate emergency and has a Climate Action Plan. We recognise that travel is a necessary and enjoyable part of research in our community, but we ask that applicants think carefully about how to travel in a more sustainable way (e.g. carbon offsetting, taking less-frequent trips, travelling overland instead of by air where possible). We encourage all applicants to include more sustainable options within any budgets, even if these are more costly than the most basic option. If you are doing something specific to address climate action as part of any travel plans within this application, please do include this in the justification of resources.
Completed application forms should be submitted by the referee by email to the SLAS Secretary by the deadline. Applications arriving after the deadline will not be considered under any circumstances. Referees will normally receive a confirmation of receipt of an application within 3 working days. Applications will be retained for up to one year and will be shared with members of the SLAS committee for assessment.
Grant recipients will be expected to write a short blog post (approx. 300-500 words), which may be published on the SLAS website. This is to be submitted to the SLAS secretary within 1 month of returning from the funded trip. We are particularly keen to include images for which grant recipients hold appropriate permissions within blog posts. We also strongly encourage all grant recipients to submit an article to the Bulletin of Latin American Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14709856/homepage/forauthors.html
One award may be made for MA students intending to go on to do a PhD. However, priority will normally be given to students registered for a PhD or to those who have recently completed a PhD.
Assessment Criteria:
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Quality of Project - out of 20
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Potential significance of the research - out of 10
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Justification of budget (including consideration of whether other funding sources have been exhausted) - out of 5
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Reference - out of 5
Application Timeline
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March: Deadline for PG & PD Research Support Grants. Please make sure you leave enough time for your referee to complete the form.
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By end of April: We aim to inform all applicants of the outcome of their application within six weeks of the deadline.
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May – November: Book trip / undertake project. SLAS will pay the award upfront so that researchers are not out of pocket. You should keep copies of any receipts for auditing purposes. Any underspend must be returned to SLAS.
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After trip: Write a short blog post (approx. 300-500 words), which may be published on the SLAS website. This is to be submitted to the SLAS secretary within 1 month of returning from the funded trip. We are particularly keen to include images for which grant recipients hold appropriate permissions within blog posts.