Grants & Prizes Ecological Opportunities Fund Honours, Awards and Prizes Building Capacity for Ecology Fund Honorary Member List Research grants Fellowship studentship Early Career Project Grants Overseas Bursaries and Fellowships SEPG and UEP Support Grants Examples of good practice Education Innovation & Research Grants Coalbourn Educational Awards Expedition Grants General notes Grants to attend meetings & courses Grants to run meetings & events Grant reports List of Tansley Lectures

Small Ecological Project Grants and Undergraduate Ecological Project Support

Small Ecological Project (SEPG) Grants

SEPGs are given to promote all aspects of ecological research and ecological survey. The grant can be used to enable ecologists to travel from the United Kingdom or Eire to a third country, or vice versa, for the purposes of research where alternative sources of funding are inadequate. There are no restrictions on where applicants come from or where they carry out their research work. These grants are given to people and not to organisations. SEPGs are only open to current BES members and to applicants applying from a country classified as having a 'Low or Lower-Middle-Income economies' according to the World Bank categorization. Funding is not available for work that will form part of a higher degree thesis. Where research is associated with a funded post-doctorate position, the relationship of the research to the position needs to be made explicit in the application. The research should be distinct from timetabled teaching activities and should primarily have been planned and organised by the applicant.
If you are an undergraduate and you want to spend part or all of your vacation undertaking an SEPG or any other independent ecological research project but cannot afford to do so, you may also apply for an Undergraduate Ecological Project Support Grant.

Applicants should note that the Society's Press Officer might use the information on the first page of the application form. Press releases are usually made a week or two after the award of a series of grants and experience shows that the local press in particular, takes considerable interest in these projects. If your application is successful, please send the Society copies of articles that mention your grant and/or the BES.
Although threatened habitats provide the impetus for the SEPG scheme, the scheme has now been widened to include any ecological project. The BES is keen to support small pilot projects, in which cases the grants are viewed as pump priming, hopefully being instrumental in obtaining larger grants from other organisations. Occasionally grants will be given for the dissemination of the results of ecological work, particularly work supported by the Society in its initial stages, and for the preparation of identification keys where these are seen to be essential for further ecological work. Support will not be given for purely management work, but projects that involve the monitoring of management practices will be considered. The BES will also look favourably on applications to UK's Overseas Territories. 

Grants are given towards the cost of travel, for the employment of casual and short-term assistance, and for the purchase of small items of equipment. Financial support will not normally be given to technicians unless a particular case is made for specialist use. Repeat applications, year after year for essentially the same project will be rejected. Special consideration is given to amateurs and to those with no alternative sources of funding.

As SEPGs are available to amateur as well as professional ecologists, it may be appropriate on the application form to include details of the following:

• access to equipment (i.e. the use of a school, or university laboratory);
• access to specialist help (i.e. the availability of a local expert to aid identification);
• agreed supervisory help (i.e. it may be appropriate to ask a member of staff of a field centre, university or research institute to keep an eye on the development of the project);
• equipment already owned by an amateur naturalist (i.e. a personal computer for statistical analysis of data)

It is essential that a complete and detailed costing of the project is included. Applications with vague costing (i.e. £350 towards......) will be rejected or deferred. Even if you seek a partial contribution to the cost of a project, the costing of the whole project should be detailed, making it clear which part you are hoping that the BES will support. The grant covers up to a maximum of £1000 for travel costs and up to a maximum of £1,500 for other expenses. Please state the total amount sought from the BES.

Applicats should aim to make the aims of the project explicit in the section totled "Project Title/Proposed Activity". In addition (where relevant) the proposal should contain an indication of the likely sample sizes or days spent surveying.

Often an application requests the employment of student help for a few weeks; the maximum level of support that will be considered is £185 per week. When calculating cost of travel, please note that mileage is paid at a maximum of 25p/mile. Please also note that the Society will not cover the salary of the principal researcher within the grant, bench fees or the direct costs for the hire of departmental vehicles.

Details of any other applications for funding must be given, especially:

• for grants in excess of the maximum where support has to be obtained from several grant-awarding bodies;
• when the amount sought is only a proportion of the total required.

Indicate your personal contribution, if any, to the project. Also include all previous applications to the BES stating whether or not they were successful.
If access to research areas is by permit you should ensure that you can obtain one. The BES will expect you to comply with any regulations requiring deposition of specimen material and the application of the Biodiversity Convention. Applications for projects based outside the UK should demonstrate liaison with local environmental agencies and/or NGOs.

Although supporting documentation (e.g. photographs, tables of data, reports, papers etc.) is welcome (and will be seen by the Chairperson), only the two pages of the application form will be seen by members of the Committee. Please therefore include all information on the form. We cannot undertake to return material without a s.a.e.

The BES will normally not award more than one grant to any one applicant in any one year, and no more than three grants in any five year period. The award of a second or subsequent grant in a following year, for different projects, will depend also upon satisfactory reports being received on former or current small ecological projects.There is no objection to the applicant doing the work whilst part of an expedition but the applicant has to take the responsibility of completing their own part of the expedition, as a stand-alone activity. Several individuals may submit applications for the same expedition providing their projects are distinct.

A final report must be submitted to the BES in an electronic format, for details to be placed in the BES bulletin as well as on the BES website. Abstracts from SEPG reports may be printed in the BES Bulletin and must not be the same as that which might appear in a journal.

Value:
The grant covers up to a maximum of £1000 for travel costs and up to a maximum of £1,500 for other expenses. Please state the total amount sought from the BES.

Closing dates:
1 April, 1 November

Application:

This grant is only available by applying using the BES online application form. 

To view or download the online questions before filling in the online form  click here (this form is only for guidance and applications will need to be submitted using the online form)

To apply for this grant  click here

Two accompanying referee statements will be required before the online form can be submitted so applicants are advised to fill in their application form well in advance of the application deadline and to make sure that their referees are contactable by email as referee forms will be automatically sent to their email addresses when they have submitted their application. Forms submitted after the deadline will go into the next application round dependant on the stated start dates of the project. Applications can not be awarded in retrospect for research that has finished or already started. 

Conditions:

The Small Ecological Project Grant and the Undergraduate Ecological Project Support Grants are only open to current BES members and to applicants from a country classified as having a 'low and lower-middle-income economies' according to the World Bank categorization.
All grantees will be expected to submit a report on the work undertaken. Preferably in electronic format. Information about the timing of reports will be given to successful applicants.

Published papers, reports to other organisations, etc., should include an acknowledgement of the support from the BES.
Other conditions, which may be deemed necessary, may be attached to the award of a grant.

To view previous grant reports and to download a report template please visit the report section of our website.

Coalbourn Trust Grant

The Coalbourn Trust is an independent trust that looks to the British Ecological Society to nominate suitable projects for funding. Recommendations for funding will be made from among the applicants for Small Ecological Project Grants and the same overall rules will apply. All applicants for SEPGs will automatically be eligible for funding for the Coalbourn Trust, and separate applications are not required. See SEPG for details concerning application.

Undergraduate Ecological Project Support (UEPS)

It is possible to apply for both an Undergraduate Ecological Project Support and a Small Ecological Project Grant for the same project but being awarded one does not guarantee being awarded the other and so the applicant must ensure that  he or she makes it clear in the application whether the project will be achievable if only one of the applications is funded.

This grant is intended to include a stipend to cover the time taken doing ecological research work for up to a maximum of six weeks. The grant can include travel and subsistence in addition to the stipend (but the same costs can not be requested in any accompanying Small Ecological Project Grant application). Work can be undertaken up-to 6 months after graduation, but cannot be part of an honours project. Successful applicants will be encouraged to present their work at the BES annual meeting within 18 months of commencing the work. Any resulting publications from the research must have the applicant as the principal investigator.

The work can be carried out in the UK or overseas.

The criteria that needs to be met to qualify for this grant are: 

• This project should not be intended for submission as part of a degree course (e.g. honours project) but the applicant is encouraged to submit the results for publication
• Applications must be supported by two academic referees at least one of which should be a member of staff of the institution where the applicant is a student. This referee should verify that the proposal is not part of an honours project.
• UEPG’s are given to an individual student who is responsible for completion of a report to the BES. There is, however, no objection to any subsequent paper having co-authors.
• There is no objection to the applicant doing the work whilst part of an expedition but the applicant has to take the responsibility of completing their own part of the expedition, as a stand-alone activity.
• Several individuals may submit applications for the same expedition providing their projects are distinct.

Value:

The maximum grant, including stipend and subsistence shall be £2000.  Stipend to be calculated at a rate of £250 per week. This may be applied for in addition to an SEPG grant, though costs cannot be repeated.

Closing dates:
1 April, 1 November

Application:

This grant is only available by applying using the BES online application form. 

To view or download the online questions before filling in the online form  click here (this form is only for guidance and applications will need to be submitted using the online form)

To apply for this grant  click here

Two accompanying referee statements will be required before the online form can be submitted so applicants are advised to fill in their application form well in advance of the application deadline and to make sure that their referees are contactable by email as referee forms will be automatically sent their email addresses when you have submitted your application. Forms submitted after the deadline will go into the next application round dependant on the stated start dates of the project. Applications can not be awarded in retrospect for research that has finished or already started. 

Conditions:

The Small Ecological Project Grant and the Undergraduate Ecological Project Support Grants are only open to current BES members and to applicants from a country classified as having a 'low and lower-middle-income economies' according to the World Bank categorization.
All grantees will be expected to submit a report on the work undertaken. Preferably in electronic format. Information about the timing of reports will be given to successful applicants. Good quality black and white photographs should be included.
Published papers, reports to other organisations, etc., should include an acknowledgement of the support from the BES.
Other conditions, which may be deemed necessary, may be attached to the award of a grant.

To view previous grant reports and to download a report template please visit the report section of our website.

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