Small Grants Scheme

In the summer of 1999, the new SLSA Small Grants Scheme was announced in the Socio-Legal Newsletter. From the start, it was a great success and has continued to attract applications from across the breadth of socio-legal studies from both junior and senior academics. Originally, amounting to £5000 per year, the fund was increased to £8000 in 2004. The scheme's aim is to support work for which other funding sources would not be appropriate and to encourage socio-legal research initiatives in a practical way.

How to apply

SLSA members interested in applying for a small grant are reminded that the deadline is 31 October each year. Individual awards are up to a maximum of £1500. The Research Grants Committee takes the following elements into consideration when judging applications:

  • the coherence and costing of the proposal and the applicant's likely contribution to socio-legal scholarship, including anticipated publications or enhancement of the prospect of future research grants from other grant-making bodies;
  • funding will not normally be provided for conference attendance or to subsidise postgraduate course fees;
  • funding will not be provided via this scheme for one-day conferences or for seminar series;
  • feedback will be given to unsuccessful applicants;
  • no member will receive more than one grant per year;
  • Executive Committee members are not eligible for the scheme.

Decisions for each round of grants are made no later than 31 January each year.

You must use the official form for your small grant application and you are advised to look at the titles, reports and summaries from past grantholders to help you decide whether your project is appropriate for a grant.

If you have any queries about this scheme, please contact Professor Mary Seneviratne.

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Writing your research application

Being able to write a good research proposal is essential in order to obtain any sort of funding. The Research Grants Committee of the SLSA provides feedback to unsuccessful applicants. Often, their applications fail because of elementary errors which could easily be avoided. In a recent issue of the Socio-Legal Newsletter (SLN 45:1), John Flood summarised some of the pitfalls commonly encountered by applicants and gave constructive advice on putting together a successful bid.

Applying for SLSA research grants

There was a strong field of 11 applicants in the 2004 round and the Small Grants Sub-committee supported six of them, awarding £7999 out of a possible £8000. The successful candidates submitted an excellent group of research applications: interesting, original and well thought-out. However, there were some that didn't make it through the first cut and the sub-committee gave limited constructive feedback to these unsuccessful applicants. Their failure to progress was not due to problems with their ideas, but rather in the way the application was composed and presented. To assist applicants in the 2005 round, we would like to proffer some constructive hints and tips to help your application become one that receives serious attention and possibly wins an award.

First, be aware to whom you are addressing your application. Since the SPTL changed its name, its acronym is now not too dissimilar from ours: SLSA/SLS. Both associations run research grant schemes. Send yours to the correct one. Also, we prefer to fund actual research rather than conferences or seminars. If the research applications outnumber conference/seminar support, the latter will be placed at the bottom of the pile.

Second, you have a single A4 page with 11-point font to present your ideas. It's not much. You need to say what the research is about, give us your theoretical framework (this is socio-legal studies) and specify your methodology. Clarity and succinctness are the watchwords here. We are looking for good ideas (preferably with some originality), interesting theoretical approaches (we are catholic in our views on this) and methods that are spelled out so we know what you are going to do. A vague reference to ‘carrying out some interviews with local notables' is insufficient. Tell us whom you are interviewing, why and give some indication of what you might ask. If you are part of a larger network or research group, let us know and tell us how your research fits into this larger pattern.

Third, you may be asking us to give you as much as £1500 to spend on your research. The SLSA is not wealthy and we husband our resources to get the most bang for our buck. Your costings must be precise. It is no good saying you would like £1500 to fly to the Azores where you will study legal pluralism. We need fares, per diems, material costs, etc. If we know how you are going to spend this money, we can give it to you with confidence. Also, let us know if you have funds from other sources – that suggests your research has strength – or if you are applying to other funders. Not having funds from elsewhere is not a drawback. In part, this will depend on whether your project is a self-contained piece of work or part of a larger research activity.

Finally, what will the result be: a monograph, an edited collection, a journal article, a website? Tell us what the outputs will be. After all, it was Karl Popper who said knowledge wasn't objective until it was published.

John Flood, SLN 45:1

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