Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (CWPT) - The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust

What the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust offers

You get funding to spend a few weeks or months in the UK. You can either finish a PhD or make a research or professional visit to a British institution. The support comes as one of four programmes. Doctoral students already in the UK can get a one-off top-up of up to about EUR 1,150 (GBP 1,000) to help them finish their PhD. Visiting Fellows and artists get a monthly living allowance of roughly EUR 1,650 to EUR 1,850 (GBP 1,450 to GBP 1,600) for a stay of three weeks up to three months. This also includes a contribution towards a return economy flight and UK visa costs. The Trust is a British charity set up in 1981 to help Pakistanis develop their careers and research in the UK. Note that course and lab fees are not covered.

Who can apply

• Nationality and residence: You are Pakistani and normally live in Pakistan. If you apply for the doctoral top-up, you may already be studying in the UK.
• Level: You are a PhD student near your final year, an academic, or a working professional. Bachelor's and Master's students cannot apply.
• Field of study: Your field is humanities, arts and creative industries; social sciences and social development; or life sciences including medicine. Some partner institutions accept only certain of these fields.
• Age: For Open Fellowships you are aged 30 to 50. Some partners set an under-50 limit.
• Money and merit (doctoral top-up): You show both strong academic results and financial need. You must already have other funding, because this is not a main hardship fund.
• First-time advantage (Open Fellowships): If you have never travelled abroad to study or work, you have a slight edge.

How to apply

How you apply depends on the programme. For the doctoral top-up, use the Trust's own form and submit it by email with a supervisor's letter and a short CV. The deadline is the last day of April or the last day of October. Open Fellowships are advertised once a year on the British Council Pakistan website, usually in December or January, with a March deadline. Interviews take place in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Reserved Fellowships run through partner universities such as SOAS London and Edinburgh. Each has its own form, references and deadline, and shortlisted applicants may be interviewed online.

How realistic are your chances?

Every route is narrowly cut: you must be Pakistani, in a named field, and often at a set career stage or age. So the applicant pool for any single route is small. The awards are few, for example one SOAS fellowship a year and one Edinburgh fellowship every two years, so a single high-profile place is contested. If you clearly fit one programme's criteria, line up a UK host early where that is required, and apply on time, your prospects are solid.