SRUK​/CERU Professional Development Grants

SRUK/CERU Professional Development Grants 2026 Application

For the thirteenth consecutive year, the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK/CERU) is pleased to announce the call for the SRUK/CERU Professional Development Grants 2026
. These grants are open to SRUK/CERU travel, registration fees, and/or accommodation they have allocated to attend a research conference, a workshop, or an international meeting in their field of expertise. The event must develop the professional profile of the applicant, e.g., by enabling them to present their research, network, or develop their science communication skills. Eligible events must take place between 1 st June 2026 and 31 st May 2027.

Funding is limited and grants will be awarded on a competitive basis based on merit and the expected impact the activity will have on the applicants’ professional development and career. All applications will be peer-reviewed by our Evaluation Committee.

Awards

• Twelve SRUK/CERU Professional Development Grants of £600.
• The activities SRUK/CERU regular members can fund include conferences, meetings, and/or workshops in any country (including the UK), and must have a clear impact on the applicants’ professional development.
• Activities must be held between the 1st of June 2026 and the 31st of May 2027.
• Applicants may use their award to attract additional funding, but SRUK/CERU will still expect appropriate recognition (see “Further Details” below).
• All applicants are required to be SRUK/CERU Regular Members. Non-members can only apply if they become a regular member before the Final date to receive applications for this grant scheme. You can learn more about our different memberships and register to become an SRUK/CERU Regular Member via this link.
• Due to the limited nature of the funding and the objective to further develop the career of early career researchers, those applicants with a permanent position will not be considered.
• Neither members of the SRUK/CERU Evaluation Committee nor the Board of Directors of SRUK/CERU (President, Vice-president, Roving Director, Treasurer, and Secretary) are eligible to apply.
• Eligibility of the activities will be decided by the Evaluation Committee. The Roving Director reserves the right to declare that an event is ineligible if they believe it does not fulfil the objectives of the grant.
• Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
  • Applicant’s skills and proposal (CV and lay abstract, evaluated up to a maximum of 25 points each); the evaluation committee will take the researcher’s experience and career stage into consideration.
  • The relevance of the activity for the applicant (up to a maximum of 50 points), number of attendees to previous editions of the activity they want to attend, plans for establishing possible future collaborations, relation to their research field, and timeliness in relation to their career development.
• Priority will be given to those not awarded in previous years.
• The number of professional development grants awarded to each scientific area will be proportional to the demand.
• The availability of additional funding should be specified in the application, but it will not be used as an evaluation criteria.

Further Details

• Recipients will be personally responsible for all the arrangements and expenditures including registration, travel, insurance, accommodation, and personal commitments.
• Recipients must acknowledge SRUK/CERU and the SRUK/CERU Professional Development Grant awarded as a source of funding to attend the proposed activity (i.e., the SRUK/CERU official logo and additional details will be sent to the awardees by email).
• Within four weeks after the activity has taken place, recipients will be required to submit either a report (500 words maximum) or a short video (no more than 2 minutes answering no more than five questions) in lay English, outlining the impact of the activity they attended and the impact that the SRUK/CERU Professional Development Grant had on their career and professional goals.
  
  SRUK/CERU reserves the right to publish or use these materials for promotional purposes (e.g., SRUK/CERU social networks such as Instagram,…