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.

How realistic are your chances?

Applications are open exclusively to PhD students at British universities whose research projects make a genuine contribution to geographical knowledge; the pool of applicants is therefore smaller than for an open scholarship. The assessors evaluate originality, feasibility and a well-justified budget, so a carefully prepared application with clear logistics for fieldwork will stand out in particular. If you meet the criteria, lack full funding for your fieldwork and submit a convincing, feasible project, your prospects are good.