The society currently offers eight grants and scholarships:
- Wallace-Burnet-Gilbert Fund – for students and BLS members wishing to attend courses, workshops, and field meetings they could otherwise not afford.
- Overseas Members Travel Fund – for overseas BLS members to travel to the UK for collaborative research.
- Summer Vacation Scholarships – for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates at a British University, to gain supervised research experience in any branch of lichenology.
- Tom Chester Award - for schools and colleges, to support fieldwork involving lichens by students aged 5-19 years.
- Small Group Training Grants – small grants to facilitate in person training for local groups or other lichen groups, either tutor lead or self-help events.
- Small Ecological Project Grants – to support fieldwork by BLS members on neglected habitats or species.
- Grants for Ecological or Conservation Research & Survey on Lichens – for research and fieldwork on notable or threatened lichens and their habitats.
- Peter James Research Award - to fund research in lichenology.
Further information about each of these opportunities is given below.
Applicants for grants should normally have been members of the Society for at least one year, but The Society may allow exceptions to this rule.
Please note that the Grants Committee is also open to proposals regarding other projects and ideas, which do not fit in the categories above, but are in line with the aims of the Society. To enquire please fill in a General Grants application Form (see below), outlining the proposal and an indicative budget. The Vice-President will be happy to answer any queries and provided further information before an application is submitted.
Please email completed application forms to: vice-president@britishlichensociety.org.uk
Wallace-Burnet-Gilbert Fund
This fund was set up in the memory of Nancy Wallace, Alice Burnet and Oliver Gilbert, previous members of the Society who wished to foster an interest in lichens. All were active members who, when they started developing their interest in lichens, appreciated the encouragement and support they received from other members.
The purpose of the fund is to enable students and members to attend courses, workshops, and field meetings where attending at their own expense would cause financial hardship.
Awards can contribute to travel, accommodation, and course fees (not books and equipment) and will normally be of up to £500 although in exceptional circumstances more may be considered. They are payable on production of receipts after the course or meeting. If that presents a problem, then The Society may pay in advance or arrange to be invoiced directly.
Applications should be made at least one month before the event. Recipients will be expected to attend the whole course or meeting concerned. Applicants will be expected to write a short article for the BLS Bulletin.
Overseas Members’ Travel Fund
This fund is intended to help and encourage overseas members to visit the UK, primarily to collaborate with BLS members here either in laboratory and/or field research. Visits to use facilities such as reference collections will also be considered but visits to attend conferences are excluded. An award will not exceed £2,500. This is intended to support travel costs in full, and a contribution to accommodation costs, not exceeding £20 per day or £400 in total, may also be made.
The overseas members should submit the application including details of their professional position, the name of the UK collaborator, the aims and objective of the project and how it will benefit from the collaboration, approximate dates of the visit and an estimate of travel costs. The UK collaborator should submit a letter of support direct to the Vice President, and applications will not be considered until this has been received.
Summer Vacation Scholarships
The Society offers one vacation scholarship annually to provide an undergraduate with research experience in any branch of lichenology. Candidates should be higher education/university students in Britain who are about to complete their second or third year of study.
The maximum value of the scholarship is £300 per week for a maximum of 10 weeks, plus a small grant towards the cost of materials, amounting to an overall maximum of £3,200. The project should be complete in itself, although this need not preclude topics related to broader studies. It should not constitute a required part of degree work, or an expedition or work outside the UK.
Applications should be made by the supervisor who should hold a post in a UK research institution (e.g. university, museum, botanical garden) and be a BLS member. The application should be accompanied by:
- Title and brief outline of the research proposal (Maximum two sides of A4), with a budget showing how the funds would be allocated, a timetable for the work, and a brief outline of the support that will be available to the student in terms of resources, facilities, supervision and training.
- Name of student and their CV (typically one side of A4).
- Supporting reference from their supervisor.
Deadline for applications is 15th April each year.
The supervisor is expected to oversee the work, and to have discussed with the student prior to the applications. A brief synopsis of the findings must be submitted for publication in the BLS Bulletin.
Tom Chester Award
Tom Chester had a deep interest in churchyard lichens, developed while he was head-teacher at a Northamptonshire primary school. His bequest enables the Society to offer awards of up to £250 to schools or colleges for fieldwork involving lichens by an individual or group of students between the ages of 5-19 years.
Applications should be accompanied by a brief proposal (no more than 250 words) on school or college-headed paper, signed by the headteacher or principal, and outlining the purpose, location, and duration of the project. This should describe the learning outcomes and how the award would be spent. The Society may be able to offer technical guidance such as advice by a local lichenologist.
On completion, the school or college should submit a brief article to the BLS Bulletin.
Responsibility for all work carried out in relation to this award must be taken by the school or college.
Small Groups Training Grants
These grants are for in-person training of groups, led by a tutor or as group-learning projects. The request could include the cost of hall hire, tutor expenses, handouts or similar. Attendees will be expected to contribute to costs when booking an event. The group would be expected to write a short summary for the BLS Bulletin. Sue Knight, the Chair of the Learning Pathways Group, will be happy to discuss concepts and ideas before an application is submitted. Contact: sueknight10@btinternet.com.
Small Ecological Projects Grants
The Society sponsors fieldwork with a specific purpose. Grants are intended to cover expenses (Fuel and B&B) while in the area but will not exceed £750. It may be more appropriate to apply for funding to extend your stay for a few days if you will already be in the area rather than claiming for long distance travel. Applications should be accompanied by an outline of the proposed purpose including its aims and objectives, approach and expected costs.
The grant will only be paid on receipt of a satisfactory report within a year of being awarded the grant. Recipients will be expected to summarise their findings and submit the summary of their findings to the BLS Bulletin.
Grants for Ecological or Conservation Research & Survey on Lichens
The British Lichen Society invites applications for between £1,000 and £5,000 for research and fieldwork on notable or threatened lichens and their habitats, where this leads to increased understanding of their conservation and management. Both non-members and members of the BLS are eligible to apply. Although not essential the BLS encourages the applicants to seek other contributions to the costs of the work from other parties with an interest in management and conservation of habitats and species covered. Unlike the Small Ecological Project Grants, this grant is intended to include reasonable consultancy rates, as well as reasonable expenses. Contributions in kind from the applicant are appreciated where they can afford this, but this is not essential.
The applicant will be expected to be responsible for planning and supervising the work. This grant is not suitable for those requiring supervision or mentoring. Training and mentoring of one or more less experienced lichenologist within a project, however, would be very much welcomed.
A detailed report on the work should be produced and sent to the BLS Conservation Officer and other interested parties. This grant will be released after a suitable report has been received. Applicants may also be requested to summarise the work in an appropriate publication, including contributions to peer reviewed journals.
There are additional help notes at the end of the specific application form for this grant
Note: Applications for this grant should be sent to the BLS Conservation Officer (conservationofficer@britishlichensociety.org.uk)
Grants for Ecological or Conservation Research & Survey on Lichens notes, and application form
Peter James Research Award
The purpose of this grant is to fund excellent research, which advances our knowledge of lichens. There is an annual deadline of November 1st with an expectation of funding a single project up to a maximum of £5,000. Proposals will be assessed by peer-review, and applicants will be notified of decision via email by January 1st. It is expected that the research will result in the submission of a paper to the Lichenologist for peer-review within 3 years.
Grants are expected to clearly advance the state of knowledge or understanding of British lichens. This may include study outside the boundaries of Great Britain, as long as the outcomes have relevance for British lichens, e.g. taxonomic or phylogenetic study of a group of lichens, with some but not necessarily all, of its members found in the Great Britain: a physiological study of a widespread species known to be a single genetic lineage based on proper study of gene flow to ensure cryptic species do not confound results: and ecological analysis relevant to British species or habitats, with a method allowing for repeatable studies.
The award encourages collaborations between institutions and field lichenologists, and applications including both academics and active members of the recording community are welcome. A budget must be submitted justifying anticipated expenses. Costs related to fieldwork and laboratory costs will be supported, and per-diem rates for field expertise can be requested; salaries or overheads are not supported by this award.
Further guidance can be found at the end of specific Peter James application form.
Grant for Peter James Award Application notes and application form