The British Academy announced last week that it has reviewed its decision to cut the Small Research Grants scheme and has indicated that an additional call for proposals in this scheme will be made in September 2011 for projects starting from April 2012 onwards:

The British Academy is planning to issue a call for a further round of Small Research Grants in the autumn of 2011.

The Academy is aware that this scheme is highly valued by the research community and, following discussions with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, now expects to be able to find sufficient resource within its Spending Review allocation to continue operating the scheme over the next four years, albeit at a lower level than in previous years.

The Academy will, as in the past, use its private resources to supplement government funding; and is actively seeking additional funding to enable the number of awards under this scheme to be increased.

Further details of the next call will be announced in September 2011. Award decisions will be made in March 2012, to start from April 2012 onwards.

This is good news. Small grants have been invaluable for researchers in the humanities and social sciences at all stages of their careers to kickstart research projects, for example by carrying out visits to archives or for data collection. A successful small grant which is used well can often lead to more funding in the future.