The Leverhulme Trust

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The Trust and its schemes opportunities for
funding
Dr Anne Dean Assistant Director
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from 1922 Lord Leverhulme of the Western
Isles (1851-1925)
William Hesketh Lever
The man behind Port Sunlight and Unilever
plc and The Leverhulme Trust
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The Trust was established in 1925

• A proportion of Lord Leverhulmes 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

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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

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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

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• 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

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The suitability of the research for support by
the Trust

• the originality of the proposed work
• courageous research (avoidance of the incremental
  and the applicants 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

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Trusts view on bids rejected by research
councils

• depends very much on reasons for rejection
• Too blue skies/risky, multi-disciplinary or not
  within research councils 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.

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• Under the terms of the Founders 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

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• 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.

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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

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• Training and Professional Development in the
  Fine and Performing Arts

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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
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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
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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.

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The process
Outline Application Form 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
Applicant submits Full Application with two named
referees. Closing dates for Full Applications
21 March, 1 September, 1 December
Three deadlines each year 21 March, 1
September and 1 December
Independent referees and the applicants named
referees are consulted by the Trust
The proposal and the comments of referees are
submitted to the Trustees for decision
Application Rejected
Application Approved
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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

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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 youre 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.

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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 [phone]