These grants enable members of the Society to pursue small-scale research projects that require limited funding for part-time research assistance and/or other expenses incurred in the running of one or more empirical studies. Preference will be given to projects that include participation of undergraduate or postgraduate students on an ad-hoc basis. Awards will not be granted for work that is a central part of an already-funded project. The award covers a period of one year, and is for a fixed amount of £2,000. Any additional expenses must be borne by the host institution. The Society will, on receipt of an invoice at the end of the period of the bursary, reimburse the institution for the award. The EPS does not make awards on a full economic costing basis, and overheads, indirect costs, estate costs, and other directly allocated costs will not be met by the EPS.

Full terms and conditions can be found here MS Word or pdf.

Applicants should submit their proposals to the Hon. Secretary. Applications can be submitted at any time of the year. Applications received up to 4 weeks before a committee meeting (which are held at each of the Society's regular meetings plus additionally in October) will be considered at that committee meeting, otherwise they will be considered at the following meeting. Retrospective applications will not be considered.

Applications should consist of the following (further details on application form):

• A completed application form (download MS Word or pdf form).
• A research proposal (max. 1000 words)
• A one page curriculum vitae
• A letter from the Head of the hosting department indicating the department's willingness to host the grant and abide by the Society's terms and conditions (download MS Word or pdf)

Small Grants will be allocated by the EPS Committee. Preference will be given to first time applicants. Applicants who are awarded a Small Grant in one year cannot apply in the following year. Applicants who have been awarded an undergraduate bursary cannot apply for a Small Grant in the same year, or the following year.

Within two months of termination of the period of the grant, the award holder will be required to submit to the Hon. Secretary a short report (max 1000 words) and a completed Final Report form confirming that any payments incurred during the period of the grant have been made, and that all local ethics procedures were followed. The award holder should submit with the Final Report an invoice on which basis the EPS will reimburse the host institution. The Final Report must include details of actual expenditure, although the accompanying invoice should be for the full value of the award (£2000) even if not all the funds had been used. Where actual expenditure was less than the full value of the award, the EPS will nonetheless reimburse the full value on the understanding that the additional monies will continue to be used in support of the award holder's research activities. The report should include an abstract of the research and mention any publications planned on the basis of the research activities associated with the award. The Society's assistance should be acknowledged in any such publications. Further details of the headings to use are in the Final Report form (download MS Word form here).

Members of the Society may donate money to the Small Grants Fund in the assurance that it will not be used for other society purposes. The EPS Committee wishes to encourage members and/or institutions to consider this possibility seriously.