Conference and workshop grants

The Society for French Studies offers grants in support of conferences and pedagogic workshops held primarily in the UK or Ireland and which are concerned with research, teaching and learning in any area of French studies. This includes one-day conferences and seminars, postgraduate conferences, and activities relating to the teaching of French studies in higher education. Such activities may involve pedagogic workshops, symposia on the teaching and learning of French studies, and networking events for practitioners.

The Society is particularly keen to encourage regional cooperation. Applicants are encouraged to apply for other sources of funding where practicable. Where appropriate, there will be an expectation of institutional contribution and this should be clearly evidenced in applications. The Society will not support conferences which coincide with its own Annual Conference.

Deadlines

There are no deadlines for this fund. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, but applicants should bear in mind that consideration of their application may take up to two months from the date of application. They should therefore apply at least two months in advance of the start of the planned research activity.

Purpose of grant

The main purpose of conferences, workshops or seminars supported must be the dissemination of research and/or pedagogic practice in the broadly defined field of French Studies. The principal criterion for an award will be the perceived academic value of the meeting in competition with others. Applicants will be expected to have planned their event well in advance and to have obtained primary funding from their university institution or other appropriate sources. Applicants are required to state all other sources of funding, but funding from other sources will not in itself be seen as a weakness in an application. Both major international meetings and smaller-scale specialist colloquia, including one-day events, will be considered on their academic merits.

Eligible subject areas

The Society for French Studies exists to promote teaching and research in French studies in higher education. Events supported by this scheme should be aligned with this objective.

Eligibility of applicants

Applications will only be accepted from the event organizer(s), who will normally be academics and postgraduates, belonging to higher education departments of French (or departments which teach French) in the UK and Ireland, who are undertaking to organize conferences in the UK or Ireland. Exceptionally, the Society will consider funding for events taking place outside of the UK and Ireland where the lead applicant belongs to a British or Irish institution of higher education and where international collaboration is integral to the event.

Applicants must be members of the Society for French Studies.

Level of Grant

Grants will normally range from £100 to £1000 where appropriate and where possible within available resource. The Society is happy to co-sponsor events, but such co-sponsorship will not normally exceed the contribution made by any other individual co-sponsor.

Eligible costs

Grants may be used as a contribution towards the travel, accommodation and maintenance expenses of bringing speakers from within the UK and Ireland or from overseas. Grants may also be applied for to assist with administrative expenses: full details must be given, as known at the time of the application.

Honoraria or other fees or payments to speakers are not eligible for support. Grants are not available for lecture series, or seminar series, or for events that form part of an institution’s teaching or training programme. Support is not available under this scheme for the subsidy of publications produced as a result of conference activity. The regular annual conferences of major subject associations or learned societies will not normally be eligible for support, and the Society prefers not to support conferences and meetings organized by other French Studies Societies which might reasonably be expected to subsidize the event themselves. Grants are not available for meetings that are projected to make a profit.

All applications must demonstrate a financial case for support. Please clearly identify any item for which grant support is sought in the application, and explain and justify why the Society’s support is requested. Please clearly itemize against each relevant named speaker the costs of travel, accommodation and maintenance for which funding is sought. Priority may be given to early career scholars and postgraduate students.

Conditions of the Grant

If a grant is awarded, the organizers will be required to acknowledge the financial support of the Society in all subsequent publicity, conference or workshop programmes, and in any resulting publications. Copies of this material should be included in the report dossier to be sent in, together with the conference report and accounts, after the event to the coordinator of the grant scheme (Dr Emmanuelle Labeau). In addition, the organizers are to send a copy of the conference report to the editor of French Studies Bulletin (Dr Jennifer Rushworth), and to submit a copy of the detailed final conference accounts to the Treasurer of the Society (Dr Paul Hegarty). Should the conference make an unanticipated profit, the Society would expect to be reimbursed proportionally, and up to an amount not exceeding the original grant. The Society reserves the right to ask for a refund, should costs not reach the expected level.

The Society will normally honour its funding commitments where travel plans are disrupted due to Covid-19, and will hold funds over where events are postponed. We do however ask that funding recipients refrain from booking tickets far in advance wherever possible, in recognition of the fact that local and national travel restrictions may change at late notice. Please contact us directly in case of any queries.