Call for bursaries

Call for Bursaries

Each year, the SLSA provides a number of bursaries for attendees of the SLSA Annual Conference. The bursary is designed to offset the costs of attending the SLSA conference, by providing an early-bird rate registration fee waiver. Please note that the bursary does not cover travel or accommodation.

Eligibility criteria

The scheme is open to:

Postgraduate students who are registered for a postgraduate degree at a higher education institution and who do not hold a full-time academic appointment or other full-time positions. Undergraduate students are not eligible to apply for a bursary.
Precariously employed staff
Representatives from a third-sector organisation
Scholars or academics facing serious financial hardship.

To be eligible to receive a bursary, applicants must have an abstract for a paper or poster accepted or have been invited to participate in a roundtable discussion, special panel, live performance, or other similar session at the conference at the time of acceptance of a bursary, not at the point of application. You do not have to wait until your poster or paper has been accepted to apply for a bursary. Delegates who are only presenting an online poster are not eligible for a bursary.

Bursary holders are required to be fully paid-up members (or registered as free PGR members) of the SLSA at the point of application. You can apply for membership of the SLSA here and use your receipt as evidence of membership in lieu of a membership number if you have not yet received it.

Priority will be given to applicants who have no other sources of funding and have not received an SLSA bursary for the annual conferences or other SLSA funding in the last three years. You will also be asked about the benefits to your career that attendance at the conference would provide. Consideration will be given to those who can demonstrate the conference will have additional benefits, such as a planned output resulting from the presentation or knowledge transfer back to a non-HEI organisation.

Bursary details

The bursary will cover the costs of the registration fees for the conference. This also includes attendance at the Drinks Reception and Gala Dinner where spaces are available. Places at the Drinks Reception and Gala Dinner will be allocated after the close of Early Bird Registration, and bursary recipients will be allocated places after fee-paying delegates or added to the waiting list. Successful applicants will need to cover their own accommodation and transport costs.

Key dates

Monday 5th October 2026 - applications for bursaries open
Thursday 3rd December 2026 - deadline for bursary applications
Thursday 21st January 2027 – latest date for applicants to be informed on the outcome of bursary applications
Thursday 28th January 2027 – early bird registration deadline
Thursday 12th February 2027 - deadline for successful applicants to confirm acceptance of bursaries.