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The Association for German Studies invites applications for travel grants of up to £500 (or the equivalent in euros), intended to assist current and recent postgraduate members who are in precarious employment to carry out their research, e.g. for digitizing archive materials or other costs associated with primary research, or for travelling abroad, either to carry out research for the thesis or to give a paper directly related to their area of study.
The grants are intended to contribute to the costs of reasonable and necessary travel and/or accommodation. The deadlines for applications are 15th January and 15th July each year. If unsuccessful the first time, applicants may re-submit their application in the following round. No further re-submissions for the same purpose will be accepted.
Please note that these grants do not provide funding to attend the AGS Annual Conference. However, bursaries are available for PGR/ECA presenters at the Annual Conference; the details of these are circulated directly to presenters in advance of each conference.
The following criteria of eligibility apply:
- Applicants must have been a fully paid-up member of the AGS for at least three months by the time their application is submitted.
- Applicants must be registered at a university in Great Britain or Ireland for a postgraduate research degree on a topic related to German Studies, or be an Early Career Academic working on a topic related to German Studies in precarious employment.
- Members who have already received an AGS Research and Travel Grant as a PGR will be considered once for a second grant as an ECA if they are in precarious employment. Preference may be given to ECAs based in the UK/Ireland.
An application should be emailed as an attachment (Word or PDF) to the Vice-President Professor Anna Saunders (). It should contain the following details:
- The name and contact details of the applicant.
- Confirmation of the applicant’s membership status.
- The applicant’s thesis topic or title; the institution at which it is/was registered; the full name of the supervisor(s); and the envisaged date of submission (in the case of PGRs) or award (in the case of ECAs).
- (ECAs only): Brief statement on the applicant’s employment status.
- Details of any other funding for the trip which the applicant has applied for or obtained. Applicants should note that the AGS encourages them to seek funding from other bodies.
- A statement of no more than 250 words, which includes:
- Details of the research or paper, its significance, and its relevance to the applicant’s thesis (in the case of PGRs) or research profile (in the case of ECAs).
- A costed breakdown of the items for which the applicant is seeking support, with brief justification, and details of the timing of the trip (where relevant).
Applicants will normally be informed of the Committee’s decision within one month of the deadline. Successful applicants will receive their scholarship at that time.
Grant holders are also required to send a c.200-word report on their visit to the Treasurer (Sarah Pogoda s.pogoda@bangor.ac.uk), along with any relevant receipts or documentation, or copies thereof, within three months of completion of their trip. The report must also be submitted as an email attachment to the Vice-President, and it will be uploaded to the AGS website, together (if possible) with any photos of illustrative material the scholarship holders have of their travel or project.
