Dear All,

I have been teaching for about 13 years and decided I wanted to take my career in a different direction to a point. I have been very pro-active and I have spoken to a number of people at different universities and organised a potential supervisor for a PHD in Ethnobotany at one unversity and I have also applied for an Msc in Ethnobotany at another. But all this depends on funding. The PHD proposal is more or less my own idea with lots of support and discussions with various people. I intend to do it over 5 years part-time so I can work, the MSc is one year full time. I could only do the Msc with full funding and the funding sources through that university didn't quite match my criteria, so I need to find other avenues. For the PHD ideally I need to find funding for the part-time fees, although I may be able to part-pay for this. I could also do with some other finance as well, for flights and other expenditure as I will be living abroad when I study the PHD, but will need to come back several times a year to the UK for meetings/conferencnes, etc.
The Leverhulme Trust is one port of call, but does anyone know of any charities or other organisations that would fund a social science PHD or perhaps an Msc?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Ta.

To the best of my knowledge the Leverhulme Trust does not fund PhD study. For the social sciences the main funder is the Economic and Social Research Council if you meet their eligibility criteria, but I think the deadlines will have passed for this year by now. There's also basically no funding for MSc programmes for social sciences - the only option if there's no university scholarships, is part-time or a career development loan (not advised if you intend to go onto a PhD as the repayments start at the end of the MSc). Is ethnobotany definitely a social science though? It might be worth checking whether it falls under biology - the funding picture might be less bleak.

Thanks, I have asked my possible sponsor for the PHD if there is funding through the University for next year as I plan to start it next April, so this should tie in with any internal possibiliites, I am just curious if there is are any bursaries or a directory of bursaries to consult? When I took my MA about 15 years ago I remember seeing a book in which I wrote off to over a hundred or more differnet people. charities, etc when I was seeking funding for a project, i wish I could remember it? Ethnobotany does cover biology, but its more to do with how people use plants.

The Leverhulme Trust does fund PhD study, earlier this year I was offered a project that was funded by the Trust.

I think the book you remember is the Directory of Grant Making Trusts.
The Leverhulme Trust won't fund PhD projects directly, what it will fund is projects proposed by academic staff at universities, which can include in the costs payment for research assistants, who can be PhD students. But what the OP is looking for, I think, is funding for their own project not to work on a larger project designed by the supervisor.

Thanks for the information. Yes the core of project is mainly my idea, but with some tweakings from my potential supervisor, partly to give it a bit more meaning and direction.
My supervisor said we can apply to the Leverhulme Trust when the time comes and they will help me draft the application. I will also look at the Directory of Grant Making Trusts, is there an online version. What about the National Geographic Society, they seem to have a broad ranging remit, perhaps some small amounts of funding to be found?

Does anyone have any advice when putting together an application for charities? I assume perhaps a condended version of the PHD proposal, to explain what I am doing and basically a 'why' for funding and 'How' I will use it, I guess it depends on the charities criteria.

Ta

What direction are you hoping to take your career in? If it's academia, you might need to do some investigation as to what the realistic job prospects are in your field. If it's outside of academia you might what to check whether a PhD would be considered at all valuable.

I think masters degrees can quite often be career enhancing. With PhDs it's more of a gamble. Just something to think about.

Thanks, HazyJane. My motivation for my PHD is not really for financial renumeration, although this would be great, but more of a personal one. For me education has always been about personal achievement over financial gain. I am already a qualified teacher of Secondary and Further Education, so career wise I am not worried. I am going to be living abroad as wife who is not form this country, so this will be a personal project whilst I am living in my wife's country. plus I already have support from various Governmental and NGO orgaisations, so with the right funding all is ago. I have already been offered a place on an Msc course, but this will be a no go as I simply can't not work, so a PHD will give me more flexibility and also the space to work. I already have a MA.

Ta.