School of Earth and Environment

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture Bursary Fund: Guidance for Applicants

Bursary awards of up to £1,500 are available for postgraduate student researchers at the University of Leeds pursuing field research projects on issues relating to Sustainable Agriculture. The total budget for Bursaries in 2012 is £10,000. Funds can be used for travel, maintenance, data collection and temporary research assistance costs related to either PhD field research, or for fieldwork support of an MSc project.

The scheme is funded as part of an alumni-supported research programme on ‘Sustainable Agriculture for Global Food Security’ and preference will be given to novel, cross-disciplinary projects that contribute clear, independent outcomes. It is required that each supported project will produce a two page briefing note to outline the main findings and relevance to land managers and policy-makers.

Applications will be assessed by a panel of experts from the Faculty of Environment and Faculty of Biological Sciences with assessment made against criteria of:

Fit to ‘Sustainable Agriculture for Global Food Security’ research programme;
Novelty of proposed project;
Feasibility of proposed project
Clarity of plan to deliver realistic outcomes;
Demonstrated funding need for additional bursary support.

The bursary scheme is available to all postgraduate students of the University of Leeds for support to the fieldwork component of sustainable agriculture projects undertaken as part of their research project.

Submissions of the application form should be made to Dr Susan Dray (s.dray(at)leeds.ac.uk ) by 24 February 2012. Awards will be announced during the week commencing 5th March 2012.

Conditions of the Award

Applicants must be a postgraduate student registered at the University of Leeds.
Awards cannot be made retrospectively and the award period of each bursary will be individually agreed.
All major expenses (e.g. travel, subsistence and research support) will require receipts for auditing the expenditure through the Sustainable Agriculture Bursary Fund.
All research must be conducted in a safe and ethical manner, with formal approval obtained through the relevant School Health and Safety Risk Assessment process and where appropriate with University Ethics Committee approval. Information on the status of these approvals should be provided with your application.
Within a month of completion of the fieldwork you will be required to complete a short report and provide high resolution JPEG images/photographs which capture the essence of the project. The report should be 2 sides of A4 length and must be submitted by 1 September 2012 (or agreed later date if linked to PhD research beyond this date). Your report should be in the form of a briefing note with short abstract, a description of the project and an outline of its key findings.
Award details, including text and images from reporting, may be used in University publications and webpages.
Money not spent must be refunded.
The Sustainable Agriculture Bursary Fund support should be acknowledged in all publications and outputs. Copies of any such publications and outputs should be submitted to the fund co-ordinator.

Contact / Applications