Funding Research Trips

By Nicola Martin |

Researching abroad, or even elsewhere in your home country, is a fantastic opportunity many PhDs enjoy during the course of their studies. During my second year I probably spent more time away from my home than in it with research trips to London, Ottawa, Michigan, California and the Isle of Bute! Going to so many amazing places is fantastic but getting the money to enable a research trip can also be highly stressful. My project relies upon archival material from institutions in North America (something I probably should have given more thought to during the application process!) and not being able to get to a particular archive would have been detrimental to the project. This meant that alongside the usual first year activities I spent a lot of my “spare” time applying for fellowships and begging my supervisors for references. My experiences may not be relevant to everyone across the disciplines but reflecting on them leads me to a few points that may be useful if you have to apply for funding during your PhD.

Start early and get organised

I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to start looking at different funding opportunities as early as you can. Most institutions require applications to be submitted at least three months before the research trip begins and many only have one application deadline per year. A number of American institutions require applications at Christmas time for research trips to be undertaken in the following academic year!

The most useful thing I did during the first fortnight of my PhD was to set up a funding spreadsheet. I combed through all the archives I thought I might need to visit and for each one I noted what documents they had that might be relevant for my project, what funding they offered, what the application procedure was and when the deadline was. I then searched for more generic funding sources: there are loads out there for different disciplines so hunt around. Asking other PhD students and staff can also throw up organisations you might not have thought of yourself. Anything useful for me I added to my spreadsheet. This took what felt like an age at the beginning of my project when I felt like I should be getting on with “real” work. In reality it probably took me under a week and it was such a time saver moving forward.

Applications

There’s no hard and fast rule about what you’ll be expected to submit for a funding application: one asked me for a 500 word project summary and a budget whilst another asked for a five page project description, an explanation of the collections to be consulted, a writing sample, two references and a CV! Many institutions will expect you to address their collections directly within your application so emphasise what they have that makes it essential you visit them and try to convey how important these sources are for your project.

Be aware also that some funding bodies will not give you a set amount; often they will ask for a budget and base their award on this. I found that the more detailed a budget you can provide the happier the funding body is: they like to know where their money is going. Cue evenings spent screenshotting Skyscanner and Airbnb pages and frantically working out how much money you need to survive in California for five weeks – just a tip, it’s probably more than you expect. One other thing to bear in mind is that you will almost certainly be asked to provide references for your application. While I’m sure your supervisors will be delighted to do all they can to help, I’m equally sure they probably don’t want you to be asking them for a reference the day before the application is due when they have a pile of marking in front of them. Be organised and give them plenty of time to get the references done

Writing funding applications can be hard work and will take up time that already feels scarce but remember that although no two applications are likely to be identical, once you have one solid application you can build on it, adapting it each time to suit the purpose and strengthening it over time.

Don’t get disheartened: often there are other options

As has been highlighted elsewhere, failure is part and parcel of PhD life. The chances are you won’t get every bit of funding you apply for and it can be incredibly disappointing. I was quickly brought down to earth after my first couple of pieces of good news when I received two rejections for two of the main institutions I needed to visit within days of one another. After the usual flurry of worrying that my research wasn’t good enough and that I wasn’t going to be able to complete my project I pulled myself together and started looking at other options. Turns out there are lots! Instead of funding one of my trips from one complete source I managed to fund it from pooling funding from three separate funding bodies all with smaller pots of money. This is a really common way of funding trips as many bodies simply don’t have large amounts of money available. Additionally I managed to find additional funding throughout the year as I found out about other organisations I hadn’t previously come across so keep looking. Twitter can be particularly helpful for this as can networking at conferences: most researchers will be happy to suggest potential avenues for funding or to point to organisations that have funded them in the past.

Nicola Martin is a PhD student investigating how warfare and pacification affected eighteenth-century British imperialism. She recently survived a research trip to California despite massively underestimating the price of fruit and vegetables. She occasionally hides from work on Twitter at @NicolaMartin14.

(Cover Image pixabay.com; Image 2 (C) Nicola Martin; Image 2 (CC) Archivo-FSP)