College of Arts

Research Support Awards

Notes of Guidance


These awards are intended for research students. Applicants must be registered with the University at the point of applying to the scheme.

Applications, on the approved application form (link below), must be submitted initially to the supervisor, for return to the Graduate School office. Applications must be submitted in advance of the expenditure being incurred. No retrospective applications will be considered. There are two rounds of applications for this scheme:

First Round - Friday 9th November 2012

Second Round – Friday 8th March 2013

Please be sure to submit your application to your supervisor with enough lead time that she/he can submit it to the Graduate School by the appropriate deadline. 

•    The application must have a confidential reference from the supervisor at the appropriate place on the form.
•    A Research Support Award is intended to provide assistance with the support costs of individual research (please note that applications for funding of projects involving collaborative research activities should be submitted under the Graduate School’s Collaborative Research Training Initiatives scheme). The Award may cover, for example, attending a conference to present a research paper; research trip travel and accommodation (for example, archival visit, fieldwork, etc); photocopying. Please note that we receive many more applications than we are able to support and that bids cannot always be supported in full. Amounts received are unlikely to exceed £300.

Please note that we receive many more applications than we are able to support. This means that the funding is extremely competitive. The Graduate School will expect to see in a successful application:

  1. an application that is complete and which is word processed; 
  2. a coherent, clear and full statement of aims and objectives;
  3. a persuasive rationale for the timeliness of the activity;
  4. a detailed budget that includes a breakdown of costs, total costs, and total amount requested;  
  5. a clear sense of the outcome of the project for which research support is sought. 
  6. confirmation that other internal (e.g. applicant's subject area or school) or external funding bodies (e.g. subject area association) have been or will be approached if appropriate, and a report of the outcome of the application. Attempts to secure other funding (including the waiving of conference fees by taking on a conference role) will be looked on favourably.    

The Sub-Committee will normally reject an application on one of the following grounds:-

  1. lack of support from the Supervisor or inadequate explanation of the relevance of the activity to the student's research project;
  2. unacceptable cost items (e.g. equipment/hardware, travel to Glasgow for supervision);
  3. lack of confirmation that appropriate funding bodies have been approached;
  4. failure to report on a previous Research Support Award;
  5. late application;
  6. incomplete application. 

In cases where more applications meet the quality threshold than we are able to fund (where quality includes reference to necessity and timeliness), the Sub-Committee will review previous awards made to individual students. This is to ensure fair distribution of funds across the PGR community. Priority will also be given to research students in their second and third year of PhD study (or part-time equivalent).

Microfilm or books or maps purchased with an award must be offered for deposit in the University Library or in the School at the conclusion of the project.

The Graduate School Administrator will confirm the award to the applicant and the Head of School and the appropriate amount will be transferred to the relevant departmental account. The applicant will claim the award through the Head of School. Claims must be made before the end of the financial year (31 July). Receipts in support of the expenditure must be provided. The Graduate School Committee is charged with the proper monitoring of the funding allocated to it by the College. It is therefore a condition of the award that the successful applicant submits a report to the Committee within 4 weeks of the completion of the funded activity (please see the link below for RSA report forms).

Completed applications should be sent to the Graduate School Office (gradschool.arts@glasgow.ac.uk), with ‘RSA’ in the subject line.