The Spring 2026 RSE Research Awards Programme opens today

The RSE’s Research Awards Programme opens today, providing funding opportunities for all academic disciplines across all career stages.

Four different research funding opportunities are on offer, designed to enable Scotland’s academics to realise their potential, stimulate research in Scotland, and promote international collaboration.

The RSE’s Research Awards programme has two calls per year in spring and autumn.

The deadline for this call is noon on Wednesday, 8 April 2026.

The following awards are currently open:

• Personal Research Fellowships: Focus on a research project for up to 12 months. This award provides funding to cover a temporary replacement to enable awardees to take research leave for a year.
• Research Collaboration Grants: Designed to encourage collaborations between disciplines and/or institutions to advance exploration of an important topic.
• Small Research Grants: Awards designed to support personally conducted high-quality research by covering eligible costs arising from a defined research project.
• International Joint Projects: For this call, we welcome applications for stream one, for applicants with a partner institute of their choice. The RSE may accept applications that have not secured match-funding. In particular, in accordance with Scottish Government priorities and in support of Scotland-Africa relations, applications are welcomed from the following six countries: Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda. Prior permission must be sought in advance.