The Leverhulme Trust has confirmed a £1.5 million, three-year grant to support the British Academy scheme awarding small research grants for the humanities and social sciences.

Welcoming this major new collaboration, Sir Adam Roberts, President of the British Academy said, ’Small Research Grant awards are one of the Academy’s best known and most valued schemes, offering significant returns on the investment of small-scale funding in individual researchers and small networks of scholars.’

Professor Gordon Marshall, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, added, ‘The Trust welcomes this opportunity to add to its portfolio of research support by offering this new funding to support new scholarship and research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.  We particularly welcome the way the scheme supports research by scholars in the early part of their careers, which for us is an especially valuable feature of the Academy’s Small Grants scheme.’

As you may recall, the Academy announced this time last year that the Small Grants scheme was to end, a decision that reflected the move by other funders, particularly Research Councils, away from small grants in favour of longer and larger grants. That decision was revoked in the summer when the Academy announced that the Small Research Grants scheme would be resumed, although with more restricted funding. The announcement that the Small Grant Scheme, which provides a maximum of £10,000 for a variety of research projects, international fieldwork or pilot studies, will come as welcome news for researchers. Small Research Grants are open to researchers at any UK Higher Education Institution or other research organisation, as well as to independent scholars, and are particularly valuable in supporting early career scholars.

The boost to funding will enable the Academy to hold two rounds of competition for the scheme each year, with deadlines in the spring and autumn.

The scheme will continue to be administered by the Academy.