Funding for current students
Santander Travel Grants
Funding for travel in 2012-13 has been allocated.
Santander has generously provided a travel fund for students of the University who wish to travel to the Iberian Peninsula or Latin America for academic purposes. Grants of up to £250 (Iberian Peninsula) and £500 (Latin America) are offered.
All students pursuing academic study related to Iberia and Latin America, including all undergraduate students and MML undergraduates currently on their year abroad are eligible to apply for a travel grant. All applications should clearly define the way/s in which the award of funding would facilitate research towards an assessed project. There should be an element of fieldwork involved, broadly defined to include the study of primary sources or secondary material which are only (or principally) accessible in the location to which travel is proposed. Travel to conferences or language/summer schools is not covered.
The application deadline for students wishing to apply for a Santander Travel Grant in 2013-14 is 1 March 2014. You should send a budget together with a covering letter explaining the nature, purpose and academic value of your trip to the CLAS Administrator, Sam Mather, and ask your supervisor to email a supporting note separately by the same deadline. All applications, either retrospective or prospective, must relate to travel in the academic year 2013-14.
Students wishing to travel to Chile should apply to the Chile Projects scheme instead.
Chile Projects
The Centre is immensely grateful for the support of Antofagasta plc in running the Chile Projects scheme, annually, from 1991, supporting the research of Cambridge students in Chile for over two decades. It is with regret that we announce that the scheme will not be running in 2013.
Simón Bolívar Fund
CLAS staff, PhD and MPhil students and PhD students researching Latin America from other departments may apply for modest sums from this fund to help with a variety of research-related activities. Applications for funding to support fieldwork abroad, attendance at conferences, and the organization of conferences, workshops, screenings and other academic/cultural events will be considered.
Applicants should first have applied to all other potential sources of funding, including Research Councils (AHRC etc) if their research is funded by one of these, their own departments (if not from CLAS) and college funds.
Funding available to student applicants
A cap is applied over the relevant course of study (M.Phil or PhD) to individuals applying for funding, as below. These figures are guidelines only and in the case of a PhD student apply to the first 3 years of a course:
CLAS MPhils up to £750
CLAS PhDs up to £1500
Non-CLAS PhDs up to £750
Applicants should not expect that they will necessarily receive the full sum over the duration of their course. Funding is awarded on merit and will be reliant on the number of applications received and the amount of money available for allocation at the time.
Specific eligibility criteria to be considered by student applicants
The Simón Bolívar Fund Committee
- will consider applications for funding to attend conferences only when the applicant can confirm that s/he is giving a paper at a conference
- welcomes applications for funding to attend conferences from third-year PhD students, and will consider applications for such funding from second-year PhD students when a very strong case is made. Applications from first-year PhD students for funding to attend conferences will not be considered.
- will consider applications for funding to attend UK postgraduate conferences from 2nd and 3rd year PhD students
- awards funding for fieldwork expenses to PhD students on the condition that they are willing to present their work at the next CLAS PhD Research Day (held approximately every 18 months)
- will consider applications from CLAS PhD students who are non-native speakers of English to cover half the cost of the University of Cambridge Language Centre’s in-sessional tuition in English for Academic Purposes
- will NOT, unless there are exceptional circumstances, consider applications for routine inland research expenses (e.g. trips to the British Library or attendance at a seminar at another university)
- will NOT consider applications for hardship grants
Smuts Memorial Fund
University staff and students researching Latin America with a focus on the English-speaking Caribbean might consider applying to this fund. See the Smuts Memorial Fund website for further details.