Awards, Prizes and Other Funding Opportunities
Seed Corn Funding Competition
As part of its ongoing effort to invest in its membership, SocRel invites applications for seed corn funding to support the development of significant and innovative work in the sociology of religion.
This competition is open to SocRel members at any stage of their careers – including postgraduate students – who are also members of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and based at a UK university.
We will make one award of up to £5000 to be used from 1 January 2025 with the expectation that the funded project will be completed within 2025.
The deadline for applications is Monday 2 December 2024. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of December 2024.
This award may be spent, in line with the BSA’s terms and conditions, on travel, subsistence, a one-off work package delivered by a third party e.g., event recording, transcription, research expenses e.g., equipment, software, printing, but not salary or indirect costs/overheads. We are open-minded as to the type of activity the seed corn funding is used for, for example, a writing workshop, pilot fieldwork, but it must be clearly designed to extend existing or develop new work in the sociology of religion.[1]
We welcome applications from groups of members. In this instance, there must be a designated lead applicant who is a SocRel and BSA member and all co-applicants must have at least SocRel membership.
Any Seed Corn activity must be undertaken in line with the (lead) applicant’s university’s codes of ethics and conduct and data protection policies. The BSA will pay the award to the successful (lead) applicant’s institution once an invoice has been received.
The application form (see below), the lead applicant CV, and short CVs for any other co-applicant named (if applicable) must be emailed to the SocRel Co-Convenors, Dawn Llewellyn (d.llewellyn@chester.ac.uk) and Sonya Sharma (sonya.sharma@ucl.ac.uk).
A note of support for the proposal from the (lead) applicant’s line manager/head of department/postgraduate supervisor/institutional point of contact should also be emailed separately to Dawn and Sonya by the competition closing date.
Criteria:
Applications will be judged by the SocRel Chair, another SocRel committee member, and two independent volunteer SocRel members, using the following criteria, which are ranked in descending order, using the eligibility criteria used by the RCUK.
1. Eligibility of applicant(s): affiliation to a UK university; SocRel AND BSA membership for the (lead) applicant and at least SocRel membership for any co-applicants
2. Innovation
3. Significance
4. Clarity of pathway to output(s) and/or outcome(s) e.g., a research project proposal, publicly available report, film, journal article, social impact [2]
[1] Any event(s) organised should not clash with any SocRel-run ones or the BSA annual conference (please check the SocRel website or with SocRel Events Officers Jennifer Riley jennifer.riley@abdn.ac.uk and Alex Arthur-Hastie alex.arthur-hastie@york.ac.uk if unsure of scheduling).
[2] Here we follow the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council’s definition of impact.
We welcome applications from groups of members. In this instance, there must be a designated lead applicant who is a SocRel and BSA member and all co-applicants must have at least SocRel membership.
Any Seed Corn activity must be undertaken in line with the (lead) applicant’s university’s codes of ethics and conduct and data protection policies. The BSA will pay the award to the successful (lead) applicant’s institution once an invoice has been received.
The application form (see below), the lead applicant CV, and short CVs for any other co-applicant named (if applicable) must be emailed to the SocRel Co-Convenors, Dawn Llewellyn (d.llewellyn@chester.ac.uk) and Sonya Sharma (sonya.sharma@ucl.ac.uk).
A note of support for the proposal from the (lead) applicant’s line manager/head of department/postgraduate supervisor/institutional point of contact should also be emailed separately to Dawn and Sonya by the competition closing date.
Criteria:
Applications will be judged by the SocRel Chair, another SocRel committee member, and two independent volunteer SocRel members, using the following criteria, which are ranked in descending order, using the eligibility criteria used by the RCUK.
1. Eligibility of applicant(s): affiliation to a UK university; SocRel AND BSA membership for the (lead) applicant and at least SocRel membership for any co-applicants
2. Innovation
3. Significance
4. Clarity of pathway to output(s) and/or outcome(s) e.g., a research project proposal, publicly available report, film, journal article, social impact [2]
[1] Any event(s) organised should not clash with any SocRel-run ones or the BSA annual conference (please check the SocRel website or with SocRel Events Officers Jennifer Riley jennifer.riley@abdn.ac.uk and Alex Arthur-Hastie alex.arthur-hastie@york.ac.uk if unsure of scheduling).
[2] Here we follow the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council’s definition of impact.
BSA SocRel Seed Corn Competition - Application Form
Eligibility of applicant(s): affiliation to a UK university; SocRel AND BSA membership for the (lead) applicant and at least SocRel membership for any co-applicants.
Proposal of Seed Corn Activity Proposed 2000 words maximum, inclusive of the following sub-sections.
- Title
- Background and rationale. 400 words maximum
- Innovation - what is new about this project’s focus, aims and/or methods? 100 words maximum
- Significance - why does this research matter, whether for the sociology of religion, social science more generally or broader society? 100 words maximum
- Clarity of pathway to output(s) and/or outcome(s) e.g. a research project proposal, publicly available report, film, journal article, social impact[1]. 300 words maximum
- Include a timeline (bullet points accepted). 200 words maximum
- Applicant background and experience and proposal match. 300 words maximum
- Benefit to Sociology of Religion in the UK. 300 words maximum
- Value for money and outline of how the money will be used. 300 words maximum
- Lead applicant CV, and short CVs for any other co-applicant named (if applicable).
[1] We follow the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council’s definition of impact, Please visit the link for more information.
Bursary Forms for Socrel Annual Conference
A limited number of bursaries are available to support postgraduate, early career, retired, low-income or unwaged Socrel members to present at the conference. Please check back for the application form for the 2025 conference.
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