The Trust and its schemes – opportunities for funding
Dr Anne Dean
Assistant Director
William
Hesketh
Lever
The man
behind Port
Sunlight and
Unilever plc…
…and The
Leverhulme
Trust
…from 1922
Lord
Leverhulme
of the
Western
Isles
(1851-1925)
The Trust was established in 1925
A proportion of Lord Leverhulme’s interest in Lever Brothers
(which later became Unilever plc) left in trust for specific
beneficiaries:
Certain trade charities (grocers, commercial travellers
and chemists) – undergraduate bursaries
Trade Charities Trust

…but the bulk of the money allocated to
Scholarships for the purposes of
research and education
The Trustees
Five Trustees
All businessmen from diverse, international backgrounds
All drawn from senior management of Unilever plc (Chairman or
Director level)
Extensive appraisal experience – spotting potential and quality
Reliant on advice received by peer reviewers
Scholarships for the purposes of research and
education:
support for the gifted individual – excellence and originality of
idea; compelling ability of applicant to undertake project;
realising potential; individual vision…
normally postgraduate level
all subjects*
PhD studentships not supported unless fully justified as part of a
Research Project Grant
The Trust is an almost exclusively ‘responsive mode’
organisation, the choice of topic always lying with the applicant
The Trust tends to avoid funding bids in those disciplines which
other Trusts or agencies (such as Wellcome, the MRC, Department
for Education and Skills, ESRC etc. are disposed to support). In
particular:
Medicine and general school education
….but might consider bids such as those which concentrate on the
sociological, philosophical, economic, legal or psychological
aspects of medicine or education…
The suitability of the research for support by the
Trust…

the originality of the proposed work

courageous research (avoidance of the incremental and the
applicant’s ability to take informed risk/blue skies research)

a mixture of disciplines (blurring boundaries/lateral impact)

individual exploration (hesitation with data banks/cataloguing)

the impact of the research outcome on other fields of study and
within the immediate field of research

the extent to which the research design transcends traditional
boundaries

the extent to which a proposal represents a departure from the
established working patterns either of the individual or of the
discipline
Trust’s view on bids rejected by research councils
…depends very much on reasons for rejection
Too ‘blue skies’/risky, multi-disciplinary or not within research
council’s current interests? Might be worth applying. Trustees
welcome exciting and challenging proposals.
If proposal has been rejected on basis of lack of quality, then
extremely unlikely to be considered by Trust.
With c. £50M available each year, the Trust cannot act as funder
of last resort for a government system with
£4 billion p.a.
Under the terms of the Founder’s Will, the Trust
is unable to engage in
FULL ECONOMIC COSTING
Therefore, overheads and similar costs cannot
be supported. The Trust supports research,
travel and subsistence costs, salaries and
bursaries…
All awards made to institutions (such as universities,
arts training organisations, galleries and museums) are
made via a 2-stage process which involve an Outline
and Full Application stage. Three deadlines each year
for successful Outlines – 1 September, 1 December
and 21 March.
For awards made to individuals (such as most
Fellowships and Studentships), a one-stage process
applies.
The following provides a brief summary of all awards
offered by the Trust.
Research Project Grants (majority of awards made by the Trust)
Programme Grants (up to £1.75M for selected themes) – for
2008, the topics are: Tipping Points and Stress and
Compromise.
Various Fellowships (Early Career, Research, Emeritus) and
Study Abroad – and Major Research Fellowships (MRFs) in the
Humanities and Social Sciences
Study Abroad Studentships
Academic Collaboration – International Networks, Visiting
Professorships
Philip Leverhulme Prizes
and…
…Training and Professional Development in the
Fine and Performing Arts…
Training and Professional Development Scheme
These awards are mainly to permit (normally young) people to
obtain training or professional development and are based upon
a combination of talent and need.
Awards are made directly to institutions for provision of bursaries
or scholarships for the maintenance of selected groups of
students. Applications from individual students are not eligible.
The Trust also supports (to a far lesser degree) innovative
teaching activity, and research into various aspects of the Arts.
Among the organisations we support are:
We also offer residencies under our…
Artist in Residence Scheme
For artists of any kind, including musicians usually for one
academic year up to £12,500
Contrasting disciplines – i.e. a poet in a university chemistry
department, a playwright in a museum, a fine artist in a hospital
environment…
The application process
‘Institutional’ awards
Each year, the Trust receives c. 1,500 Outline proposals for
Research Project Grant (including International Networks).
A small proportion are deemed ineligible i.e. they fall within those
areas generally not supported by the Trust, or are received from
ineligible institutions. The great majority go forward for peer review
- the Leverhulme Advisory Panel (LAP).
Awards made to individuals
For these grants, a one-stage process is used, and responsibility is
devolved to the Research Awards Advisory Committee (RAAC) who
make recommendations for awards. Once a year rounds –
individual deadlines.
Decisions for all Trust awards are made on advice received
from peer reviewers.
Outline Application Form
The process
There are no closing dates for the submission of
Outline Applications to the Trust
For awards made to
institutions of any kind
Up to 12
weeks –
average 6
weeks
Outline Application undergoes initial review
Recommendation that
applicant be invited to make
a Full Application
Outline Application
rejected on grounds of
eligibility or quality
Three
deadlines
each year:
21 March,
1 September
and
1 December
Applicant submits Full Application with two
named referees. Closing dates for Full
Applications: 21 March, 1 September, 1 December
Independent referees and
the applicant’s named
referees are consulted by
the Trust
Application Rejected
The proposal and the
comments of referees
are submitted to the
Trustees for decision
Application Approved
Some recent Research Project and International
Network topics

Ubiquinated suppressors of plant immunity

Pads vs claws in arboreal locomotion: mechanics of predator-prey relationships

Haida material culture in British museums; generating new forms of knowledge

Dwarf galaxies in the Hubble Space Telescope Coma Cluster treasury survey

Engineering protein fibres with nucleic acids

Sustainable management of water in the Pantanal (South American wetland)

Interdisciplinary perspectives on African language publishing for children

Ecological services by ants in rehabilitated coal mine sites of Guajira, Colombia

Music and dance science: optimising performance potential

Women and trade union leadership development in comparative context

Defects in 2D frustrated prototype spin ice systems

Networks, protests and students: the politicising effects of campus connections

Dynamics of world cinema: transnational channels of global film circulation

Transnational climate change governance

Regionalist vs Nationalist populists in power: actions and reactions
To sum up…
 The excellence of the proposed project is of paramount importance.
 Clarity of expression, a good methodology and an idea of anticipated
outcomes and dissemination strategy are all essential.
 Really think about WHY you’re approaching the Trust – could your
project be more appropriately funded elsewhere?
 The Trustees favour applications which demonstrate both the ability of
the applicant to undertake the work, and their excitement at the
challenge this presents.
 Demonstrate WHY the work is important, and why it should be funded.
 Trust encourages creativity and the development of original and risky
research which blurs disciplinary boundaries.
 Wholly ‘within-discipline’ research projects are less likely to find
favour, but might if they are of the highest quality.
Full details of all schemes can be found on our
website
www.leverhulme.ac.uk
or (in hard copy) in our Guide for Applicants,
available upon request to:
The Leverhulme Trust
1 Pemberton Row
London EC4A 3BG
Tel: 020 7822 5220