BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants

The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, a prestigious program by The British Academy, offer up to £10,000 for postdoctoral scholars in the UK to support defined research projects over a maximum of 24 months. These grants aim to facilitate initial planning, direct research costs, and collaborative efforts through workshops or visits. Open to independent scholars as well, this funding fosters diverse academic inquiries while ensuring a rigorous evaluation process.

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 BEIS (Discovery)

Eligibility

Awards are open to postdoctoral scholars (or equivalent) who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. Applications require the approval of the applicant's employing institution, but are not limited to those of any particular status (e.g. Lecturer, Professor etc). Application may be made by independent scholars (who should choose 'independent scholar' as the relevant choice from the list of organisations in Flexi-Grant). Co-applicants may be from anywhere in the world, but the Principal Applicant must be ordinarily resident in the UK.Funds are available to facilitate initial project planning and development; to support the direct costs of research; and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or conferences, or visits by or to partner scholars.

Ineligibility

Please note that the funding provided through the Small Research Grants scheme cannot be used to cover the cost of replacement teaching, payment in lieu of salary or computer kit and that the scheme is not covered within the FEC regime – the £10,000 are available to the award-holder only for direct research expenses.Applications will not be considered for less than £500.Grants are not intended to support interchange between UK and overseas scholars where there is no planned programme of activity to meet a clearly specified research objective (dissemination of results of research conducted under the aegis of the project for which funding is sought is a permitted purpose, but applications purely to organise an international conference, whether held in the UK or overseas will not be considered); nor are grants intended solely to support attendance at open conferences organised by a third party or international organisation. (In other words, this scheme does not cover applications that might previously have been made to the now discontinued British Academy's Conference Support Grant or Overseas Conference Grant schemes, unless there is a direct connection to the dissemination of results of research funded under this proposal.)