The Leverhulme Trust
Dr Anne Dean
Assistant Director
The Leverhulme Trust
William
Hesketh
Lever
……from 1922
Lord
Leverhulme
of the
Western
Isles
(1851-1925)
The Leverhulme Trust
Established in 1925
A proportion of Lord Leverhulme’s interest in
Lever Brothers (later to become Unilever plc)
left in Trust for specific beneficiaries:
 Certain
trade charities
 Scholarships
for the purposes of research
and education
The Leverhulme Trust
Scholarships for the purposes of
research and education:
support for the gifted individual
postgraduate level
all subjects*
The Leverhulme Trust
The Trustees
Diverse backgrounds
Drawn from senior management of Unilever
plc
Generalist experience
Appraisal experience
Resistant to fashion
The Leverhulme Trust
Inclinations of the Trustees
…the suitability of the research for support by the
Trust…
 emphasis on opinion of various peer reviewers (both those
nominated by the applicant and independent reviewers
appointed by the Trust)
 mixture of disciplines (blurring boundaries/lateral impact)
 courageous research (avoidance of the incremental)
 individual exploration (hesitation with data
banks/cataloguing)
The Leverhulme Trust
……….as well as:

originality of the proposed work

impact of the research outcome on other fields of study and within
the immediate field of research

the applicant’s ability to judge and take appropriate risk – promising
‘blue skies’ research

the extent to which the research design transcends traditional
boundaries

the extent to which a proposal represents a refreshing departure from
the established working patterns either of the individual or of the
discipline
The Leverhulme Trust
*The Trust tends to avoid those
specific disciplines which other Trusts
or agencies are disposed to support.
These include:
medicine
general school education
The Leverhulme Trust
With c. £30M available each
year, the Leverhulme Trust
cannot act as funder of last
resort for a government
system with
£1,500M p.a.
The Leverhulme Trust
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 Leverhulme Trust
The majority of awards given by the Trust
are made (via a 2-stage process at
Outline and Full Application stage) to
institutions mostly under our Research
Project Grant scheme
….but we offer numerous other awards,
including :
The Leverhulme Trust

Programme Grants (up to £1.75M for selected themes) – for 2007,
the topics are: Ceremony and Ritual and The Uses of Higher
Education.

Various Fellowships (Visiting, Early Career, Emeritus) and Study
Abroad

Major Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Academic Collaboration – International Networks, Visiting
Professorships

Philip Leverhulme Prizes
and…
The Leverhulme Trust
…Training and Professional Development in
the Fine and Performing Arts…
The Leverhulme Trust
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 innovative teaching activity, and
research into various aspects of the Arts.
The Leverhulme Trust
………..Among
the organisations
we support are………………
The Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust
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 Leverhulme Trust
Distribution of funds between schemes
Distribution of funds in 2006
Research Programmes
Major Research Fellowships
RAAC Awards
Philip Leverhulme Prizes
Research Projects
Visiting Fellows and Professors
Art Bursaries
The Leverhulme Trust
Portfolio of the 1294 direct awards active in 2007
Applied Sciences/
Architecture
Arts
Basic Sciences
Business Studies,
Industrial relations and
economics
Combined Sciences
Education
Government, Law and
International Relations
Humanities
Libraries, Archives &
Museums
Medicine
Regional Studies
Social Sciences
The Leverhulme Trust
Research Project Grants

To enable established scholars at eligible institutions to obtain support for a
research assistant(s); support for a postgraduate student(s); replacement
teaching costs for applicant; associated costs to meet modest direct support
costs for project. It is not normally possible for applicants to bid for their
own salary.

The maximum grant available is normally £500,000 but such bids are very
rare. The great majority of bids received are up to £150,000, with a smaller
number up to £250,000.

Eligibility criteria: originality; significance and added value; significance for
work for other subject areas; merits of proposed methodology, researchers
and institution for intended work.

The Trust is unlikely to support pilot schemes.
The Leverhulme Trust

Each year, the Trust receives c. 1,500 Outline
proposals for Research Project Grants

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.
The Leverhulme Trust
Outline Application Form
Up to 12
weeks –
average 6
weeks
There are no closing dates for the submission of
Outline Applications to the Trust
Outline Application undergoes initial review
Outline Application
rejected on grounds of
eligibility or quality
Three
deadlines
each year: 21
March, 1
September
and 1
December
Recommendation that
applicant be invited to make
a Full Application
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
The Leverhulme Trust
Some current Research Project Grant subjects
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Voting power in practice
Migration, race and population dynamics: explaining Britain’s ethnic geography
Life on the move through deep time: has a universal search rule evolved in animals?
The e-MERLIN radio astronomy revolution; developing the science support tool
Transforming borders: a comparative anthropology of post-Yugoslav ‘home’
Bloomsbury and reform in the nineteenth century
Neuro-economic analyses of herding in economics and finance
The life, thought and politics of Cambodian Buddhist monk Khieu Chum (1907-1975)
Human tooth wear in relation to recent hunter-gatherer and Palaeolithic toolkits
Where quantum meets classical: foundational structures and their ramifications
The psychological attribution of essences to objects
Evolution the tinkerer – finding a new use for an old protein
Reorganisation of river systems and climate change as controls on the Harappan
Renaissance cultural crossroads: an analytical and annotated catalogue of translations
Towards non-destructive analysis in archaeological and conservation science
Turbulent entrainment in plumes with internal generation of buoyancy
Genesis of the cortical endoplasmic reticulum in plants
A simple explanation of illusory motion experience in op art paintings
Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae and early medieval commentary
The cognitive basis of nest building
Adult ageing and the decoding of subtle social cues to mental state
Reconstructing the national income of Britain and Holland c.1270/1500 to 1850
The Leverhulme Trust
Research Fellowships
 To support experienced researchers to complete a programme of original
research (particularly those prevented from so doing by pressure of routine
duties)
 Approximately 100 awards offered in 2006
 Fellowships between 3 and 24 months
 Eligible costs – research expenses/contribution towards replacement
teaching costs or loss of earnings – Maximum value is £35K.
Applicants normally over 30 and resident in the UK
The Leverhulme Trust
Early Career Fellowships

To provide career development opportunities for those with a proven record of
research who do not hold/have not held a full-time established academic post in a
UK university.

Applicants should normally be under 35 and have a PhD or equivalent research
experience. The applicant’s PhD thesis should have been submitted by the closing
date.

The Trust will contribute 50% of each Fellow’s total salary costs to a max of £22K,
the balance being paid by the institution. Research expenses of up to £5K per
annum may also be awarded.

Fellowships are held for 24 months and should be taken up between the beginning of
the next academic year and 1 May of that year.

Fellowships can be held at universities or at other higher education institutions in
the UK.
The Leverhulme Trust
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