The SPA's Grants Schemes
The SPA runs three Grants Schemes: a Standard Small Grants Scheme, a Postgraduate Small Grants Scheme, and a Large Grants Scheme. Full details are below.
SPA Standard and Postgraduate Small Grants Schemes
The SPA invites applications for its Standard and Postgraduate Small Grants Schemes, designed to help fund seminars and workshops dealing with research and/or learning & teaching in a way that is of benefit to the social policy community and SPA members. The focus should be on activities that will benefit a group or network rather than individuals.
Funds will be made available in two rounds of applications over the year. Round one runs from 1st January to 30th June and round two from 1st July to 31st December. Applications are welcomed at any point within each award period, and funds are allocated on a first-come first-served basis.
Each award offers a maximum of £500. Applicants will be expected to:
- Publicise their seminar/workshop as widely as possible, including through SPA channels
- Write a short report after the event for Policy World and the SPA website
- Use this as an opportunity to advertise the SPA to potential new SPA members (including marketing via other channels, distribution of SPA leaflets, use of SPA logo, etc.)
- Make the seminar/workshop as inclusive as possible (attendance need not be limited to SPA members)
- Raise the profile of the SPA to external agencies (government, independent sector, research centres, etc) in the UK and other countries as appropriate
- Provide a provisional budget which must include a full breakdown of costs, indicating the items on which the award will be spent, and specify whether additional funding from other sources is being sought or has already been secured
Applications, which should take the form of a letter (2 sides maximum), should contain an outline description of the aims, rationale and nature of the proposed event. Applicants should also clearly demonstrate how it meets each of the above criteria. As much detail as possible about your plans to ensure that the award will benefit SPA members should be included at this stage. Additionally, applications to the Postgraduate Scheme require confirmation (signature and stamp) from a departmental postgraduate tutor/head of department that a host institution would be able to raise an account to hold funds transferred by the SPA (administered by the SPA treasurer).
The SPA reserves the right to pay the award in more than one instalment if this is appropriate. It also reserves the right to reject applications from those who have failed to fulfil small grant award conditions in the past.
Please send your application or any enquiries to the SPA Grants Officer, Kate Bradley, via email.
The SPA Large Grants Scheme 2012
The SPA invites applications for its Large Grants Scheme, designed to help fund one-off conference events dealing with research, policy & practice and/or learning & teaching in a way that is of benefit to the social policy community and SPA members. During 2012, we will prioritise applications which demonstrably have clear policy maker/ practitioner links. The maximum award for an individual event is £3000.
Funding is available in two rounds of applications over the year. In 2012, deadlines for applications are as follows: Round one 1st August 2012 and round two 1st December 2012.
Eligible events include one-off conference events dealing with research, policy & practice and/or learning & teaching in a way that is of benefit to the social policy community and SPA members. During 2012, we will prioritise applications which demonstrably have clear policy maker/ practitioner links. Events for which support is being sought are expected to be co-badged (i.e. events with at least one additional funding source. Funding is expected to take the form of material rather than in-kind support), and to have a registration fee.
Eligible applicants: Applicants will be expected to be SPA members. The SPA member/s applying for the grant must also be a member of the event's organising committee, and will act as the point of contact between the event's organising committee and the SPA Executive Committee.
Specific terms and conditions:
- Grants are made on the assumption that events take place on a not-for-profit basis
- The SPA's sponsorship of the event should be acknowledged appropriately, including in publicity materials and any publications arising from the event
- The event should be as inclusive as possible (attendance need not be limited to SPA members)
- A reduced rate attendance fee should be available to SPA members. A reduction should be made to the postgraduate rate for SPA postgraduate members
- Organisers should publicise their event as widely as possible, including through SPA channels
- Organisers should use this as an opportunity to recruit new SPA members (including marketing via other channels, distribution of SPA membership leaflets, use of SPA logo, a SPA stand at the event, etc.)
- Organisers should use this as an opportunity to raise the profile of the SPA to external agencies (government, independent sector, research centres, etc) in the UK and other countries as appropriate
- Organisers should write a report after the event to SPA members via Policy World
- Organisers should provide a report, which includes a financial statement, after the event to the SPA Executive Committee
- The SPA reserves the right to pay the award in more than one instalment if this is appropriate. It also reserves the right to recoup part of the award should a profit be made. Finally, it reserves the right to reject applications from those who have failed to fulfil SPA grant award conditions in the past.
Application procedure: Applications, which should take the form of a letter (4 sides maximum), should contain an outline description of the aims, rationale and nature of the proposed event. Applicants should also clearly demonstrate how the event addresses the eligibility criteria (events and applicants) and the terms and conditions of the award outlined above. Applications should provide a provisional budget which must include a full breakdown of costs, indicating the items on which the award will be spent, and specifying the additional funding source/s and itemising what this additional funding will cover. Applications should be sent as an attachment to an email to the SPA Grants Officer, Kate Bradley.
Assessment procedure: The SPA Grants Officer will forward all eligible applications to the SPA Executive Committee, which is the body responsible for making the funding decision. Decisions will be taken at SPA Executive Committee meetings which for Round will be in September 2012 and for Round 2 in January 2013.
All enquiries about the scheme should be directed by email to the SPA Grants Officer, Kate Bradley.
