Music & Letters Grants
The Music & Letters Trust makes awards twice a year, in January and July, in order to support musical research. Sums awarded recently have ranged from £50 to £1500, with most falling between £250 and £750. Support has been given for the obtaining of research materials (such as photographs and microfilms), editorial costs (e.g. translations, reproduction rights), and expenses for research trips and conference attendance, as well as costs associated with conference organization. (The costs of concerts at conferences are considered for support only if the concert can be regarded, in the opinion of the Trust, as analogous to a paper by an invited speaker or as the illustration to an actual paper.)
Funds are not available for research towards a degree. Applications from students, however, are welcomed for such purposes as conference attendance and for research expenses not directly related to the production of a thesis. All applicants should provide detailed and fully costed proposals, together with information about any other funding received or applied for.
Applications should be made by email to the Secretary to the Music & Letters Trust, Mr Peter Wilton (pjsw@beaufort.demon.co.uk). The deadlines for the January and July awards are 15 November and 15 May respectively. Applications received after those dates will not be considered at the next following meeting of the Trust but may be considered, if appropriate, at the meeting thereafter. Applicants should ask two referees to write directly to the Secretary of the Trust by one of the above dates; any delay in the receipt of a reference may imperil the success of the application.
Applications should include a Curriculum Vitae, statement of the proposed research or other activity for which funding is sought, and a full statement of anticipated costs. Wherever possible, applicants should seek funding from other sources such as the British Academy and the AHRC. Budgeting should take into account any funding applied for from other sources, and the amount received should such applications have been already successful. The Trust frequently funds projects on a shared basis and may make a provisional award pending the outcome of an application to another fund. It may also award a proportion of the sum applied for without reference to any other source of funding.
Retrospective applications are not considered except where an application in advance would have been impossible. All awards are made on the basis that the sum awarded will be spent on the project being funded. Successful applicants should notify the Secretary of the actual expenditure, once it has been incurred, and must return any unspent money to the Trust. The Trust also expects to receive a brief report on the outcome of the research or other activity, and to be acknowledged appropriately in published work. The Trust should of course be informed, with the return of the money, if for any reason the project has not been carried out.
The Trust makes awards at its absolute discretion, and its decisions are final.