BES Facebook pageEarly Career Project Grants
Please note that this grant scheme has changed. There are now two rounds of applications. Round one consists of a short application and only those successful applications from round one will be invited to submit a longer round 2 application.
The aim of this programme is to assist promising ecologists early in their careers who are intending to carry out innovative or important research of a pure or applied nature. Initiating or developing research programmes is becoming increasing difficult for ecologists during the early stages of their career, and this programme principally aims to provide an opportunity for ecologists recently appointed to academic posts to establish themselves. Exceptionally, the awards may be used to employ the investigator him/herself under circumstances where the applicant is not currently employed.
Applicants must be in their early career stage. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, 'early career' is defined as less than 8 years post-Ph.D. or -D.Phil. experience. Investigators must have a Ph.D. or D.Phil., or have submitted a thesis that will have been examined by the time the application is submitted.
The investigator must demonstrate that the project is distinct from other current research activities or if there is any overlap, that it would substantially extend their existing research in to new and distinct areas. Significant outputs should be achievable within a 12 month period, although completion of the project might take longer. The investigator should undertake at least part of the research him/herself. A brief report must be submitted within 15 months of receipt of the award.
Awards will not exceed £20,000. Money may be used to employ technical or graduate support or, exceptionally, to employ the applicant him/herself under circumstances where the applicant is not currently employed. Money may also be requested for consumable or recurrent costs, travel and subsistence or to purchase small items of equipment, which are essential for successful completion of the project. Equipment costs should not exceed 20% of the total amount requested. Money may not be requested for large items of equipment (i.e more than £2,000), overheads, to supplement the salary of the applicant or other personnel involved in the project, or to cover replacement costs of the applicant.
Applications will be assessed by a panel of experts drawn from within and outside BES Council, on the scientific excellence of the project and the performance and potential of the applicant. The criteria used to assess the grants is available. Applications from individuals based in regions outside of the UK which do not have a rich resource base for their own scientific communities will be looked upon favourably.
Submissions will be rejected without being sent out for review if they are re-submissions of a proposal rejected in a previous round, or if they represent only a minor revision of such a proposal (for example, with a modified experimental design).
Applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application by April.
Please note that this grant now has two application rounds. Applicants can only submit a Round 2 application if they have been invited to do so after successfully submitting a Round 1 application.
All Round 1 applicants will be notified if they have been successful or not within one month of the deadline.
Value of the award:
up to £20,000
Closing date:
Round 1 applications are due by the 31st of January
The deadline for Round 2 applications will be emailed to all short listed successful Round 1 applicants. (It will be approximately March / April). Referee statements will also be due by this second deadline.
Application:
This grant is only available by applying through the BES online grant submission system.
To apply for either of these grants please visit the BES grant application website. (Please do note that only those successful after Round 1 will be eligible to submit a Round 2 Early Career Project Grant application form)
Two accompanying referee statements are required to complete the round 2 online application. For this reason applicants are advised to fill in their application form well in advance of the application deadline to give their referees enough time to return their referee statements. Applicants are also advised to make sure that their referees are contactable by email before the deadline as a unique link will be automatically sent to each of the referees after the application has been submitted by the applicant. Round 1 application forms do not require referee statements.
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 that has already started.
To view or download the online questions before filling in the online form please see the links below: (these forms are only for guidance and applications will need to be submitted using the BES online grant submission system)
Round 1 questions can be downloaded from here [MS Word, 44 Kb]
Round 2 questions can be downloaded from here [MS Word, 56 Kb]
Conditions:
- This grant is only open to current BES members.
- Applicants must have a Ph.D. or D.Phil., or have submitted a thesis that will have been examined by the time the application is submitted.
- Successful applicants will be expected to submit a brief report within 15 months of receipt of the award.
- A signed letter of support from the host institute needs to be received by the BES before the grant deadline for the round 2 online application. Emails directly sent to the Grants department of the BES from the email addresses of an authorised member of staff at the host institute will also be accepted as long as it is received before the grant deadline.
To view previous grant reports and to download a report template please visit the report section of our website. Reports should be no more than 7 pages long.
