The Royal Geographic Society - RGS-IBG Postgraduate Research Award

What you get

You will receive a one-off grant of up to about 2,900 EUR (£2,500) to fund fieldwork and data collection as part of your PhD project. This covers costs such as travel to a research site or on-site data collection. Your project must be completed within 12 months of receiving the funding, and the cost of equipment must not exceed a quarter of the total amount. The grant is provided by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), the UK’s professional body for geography. Successful applicants may be awarded a named scholarship, such as the Albert Reckitt Prize or the Hong Kong Research Fellowship. The grant does not cover tuition fees or living costs.

Who can apply

• Level: You are a PhD student and carry out research and fieldwork.
• University: You are enrolled at a UK university.
• Field of study: Your project must make a clear contribution to geographical knowledge, i.e. to our understanding of how the environment, societies and places interact and change. You do not need a degree in geography or a place at a geography department. Purely mapping projects – such as those that merely record the distribution ranges of a species – do not qualify.
• Timing: Your fieldwork has not yet taken place and should not begin before April 2026. Work that has already been carried out is not eligible for funding.
• Nationality: Applicants of all nationalities are welcome to apply, provided they are enrolled at a UK institution.
• Funding gap (preferred): Your chances are better if you are not already receiving full funding for fieldwork from a research council, your university or a similar body.

How to apply

Please email the completed application form and a one-page CV to the organisation by 23 November. You must also ensure that two referees submit a short reference form by the same deadline; one of them must be your supervisor. A panel of external experts will assess the applications, and you will receive feedback on the outcome approximately four months later.