Small Grants in Humanities and Social Science (Closed)

Who can apply

You can apply for a Small Grant if you're a humanities or social science researcher with a compelling research vision and you want to do one or more of the following:

• build your professional network
• develop a new research agenda
• increase the impact of your work.

You must have a PhD or equivalent and the relevant experience to deliver a programme of activities. 

You must be based at a university or other research organisation in the UK, Republic of Ireland or a low- or middle-income country.

Programme of activities

You must propose a programme of events or activities, not one-off events or activities.

The programme could include a combination of different activities. Typical activities are likely to include organising conferences, seminars, meetings or workshops, and any research related to delivering these.

Your activities should bring together people who are relevant to your research, such as academics, policy makers and/or healthcare practitioners.

Read about the grants we've awarded and the research we support in the humanities and social sciences.

Who can't apply

You can't apply if you want to:

• conduct a pilot study
• develop a health intervention
• organise a one-off event
• travel to and attend a conference  
• write up a book
• do an academic course, such as a Master's degree or PhD
• extend a current humanities and social science grant to complete activities relating to your original aims – instead, please email hssgrants@wellcome.org
• engage with a non-specialist public audience – instead see our Research Enrichment – Public Engagement funding.

A Small Grant is usually up to £30,000. Grants usually last for six to twelve months but the duration can be flexible, eg for a series of annual conferences.

You should ask for a level and duration of funding that's justifiable for your proposed activities.

Support can include:

• research expenses for small-scale projects. Modest personal support or salary expenses may also be requested, but must be carefully justified.

  • staff

    You can ask for salary costs for yourself and any staff, full or part time, who will work on your project, provided:

    • they don't already receive a salary from your organisation
    • their time can be supported by a full audit trail.

    Staff members normally include research assistants employed on your grant. If you’re doing fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country, we’ll consider requests for more research staff.

    You will need to be able to justify these costs.

  • materials and consumables

    We will pay for the materials and consumables you need to carry out your proposed research, including:

    • archival photocopying
    • printing associated with fieldwork and empirical research
    • materials directly related to hosting workshops and interviews.

  • travel and subsistence

    Travel costs

    You can ask for travel and subsistence costs to cover:

    • any small-scale projects you carry out during the grant
    • essential visits to archives and libraries
    • any collaborative visits for you and any staff employed on your grant.

    You’ll need to justify each visit and its duration.

    Overseas research

    If you or any staff employed on your grant will be doing research away from your host organisation, you can ask for:

    • outward and return travel costs
    • subsistence costs (see below for more information)

    You should use the most suitable and economical form of travel. Please include a breakdown for each part of your trip eg air fares and number of journeys.

    Subsistence costs

    If you're working overseas or away from your host organisation for up to one month you can ask for subsistence costs.

    These include accommodation, meals and incidentals (eg refreshments or newspapers).

    If your administering organisation has a subsistence policy, use their rates.

    If your administering organisation doesn’t have a subsistence policy, please use the HMRC rates.

    If you’re away for more than one month and up to 12 months, we will pay reasonable rental costs only, including aparthotels. You should discuss appropriate rates with your administering and host organisations, or Wellcome, as appropriate. We expect you to choose the most economical options, booked in advance where possible.

    If you’re from a low- or middle- income country and will be working in a high-income country for more than one month and up to 12 months, you can also ask for up to £10 a day to cover extra costs, such as transport and incidentals.

  • other costs

    Costs you may ask for (you will have to justify these costs in your application):

    • fieldwork costs, including survey and data collection, and statistical analysis
    • specialist publications that are relevant to the research and aren’t available in institutional libraries
    • photocopying of archival documents
    • expenses for subjects and volunteers – including the recruitment of participants, their participatory fees and travel, as well as interviewee expenses
    • reasonable research-associated costs related to the feedback of health-related findings but not any healthcare-associated costs
    • costs associated with developing an outputs management plan
    • questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters etc for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies
    • public engagement materials where dissemination (including printing and publishing) is a key activity of the project
    • recruitment, advertising and interviewee travel costs for staff to be employed on the grant
    • purchase, hire and running costs of project-dedicated vehicles.

    Costs we won’t pay:

    • estates costs – such as building and premises costs, basic services and utilities. This also includes phone, postage, photocopying and stationery, unless you can justify these within a clinical or epidemiological study.*
    • page charges and the cost of colour prints
    • research, technical and administrative staff whose time is shared across several projects and isn’t supported by an audit record*
    • charge-out costs for major facilities* – departmental technical and administrative services, and use of existing equipment
    • cleaning, waste and other disposal costs*

    *We will fund these costs in the case of animal-related research.

    • indirect costs – this includes general administration costs such as personnel, finance, library, room hire and some departmental services
    • office furniture, such as chairs, desks, filin cabinets, etc.
    • clothing such as lab coats, shoes, protective clothing
    • non-research related activities, eg catering, room and venue hire for staff parties, team-building events and social activities
    • indemnity insurance (insurance cover against claims made by subjects or patients associated with a research programme)
    • ethics reviews, unless you are in a low- or middle-income country
    • radiation protection costs.

• conference and meeting costs

  You can ask for a contribution towards the cost of hosting:

  • a conference
  • a session within a conference 
  • a symposium
  • a seminar series.

  The meeting should either be:

  • for research purposes eg data gathering
  • to disseminate the findings from your research.

  The meeting can be held in:

  • the UK
  • Republic of Ireland
  • a low- or middle-income country.

  Costs can include:

  • travel and accommodation for keynote speakers
  • room hire and catering 
  • event publicity
  • conference pack publication, including name badges
  • any associated expenses that you can justify.

What we don’t offer

We don't fund overheads.

Stages of application

This scheme is now closed.

 

1. Submit your full application

   Complete your application on Grant Tracker. Submit it to the 'authorised organisational approver' at your host organisation for approval. Make sure you leave enough time for the approver to review and submit your application before the deadline. The approver may ask you to make changes to your application.

   View the Sample full application form for Seed Awards and Small Grants in Humanities and Social Science [PDF 203KB]

   If your proposal involves clinical research using NHS resources, check if you need to upload a SoECAT form with your full application.

2. Review and decision

   Wellcome staff review applications on a regular basis. There are no interviews. We aim to give you a decision within 18 weeks of receiving your application. In most cases, feedback won’t be provided to unsuccessful applicants.

Disabled applicants

If you are disabled or have a chronic health condition, we can support you with the application process.

Dates

April 2019 round

• Full application deadline

  2 April 2019, 17:00 BST

• Decision

  May 2019

July 2019 round

This is the final round of Small Grants in Humanities and Social Science.

• Full application deadline

  11 July 2019, 17:00 BST

• Decision

  August 2019