German History Society

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A. Postgraduate Scholarships 2010-11

The German History Society is offering three Postgraduate Bursaries, each of £2000, for the academic year 2010-11. These may be used to fund language courses, archive study trips, fees or general maintenance and are offered in addition to the pre-existing travel and workshop bursaries dispensed by the Society.

  1. The scholarships are open to any student currently registered for a higher degree at a university in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland, and to those who have completed a PhD within two years of the deadline for application but who have no other institutional sources of funding.
  2. Applicants should be a member of the German History Society.
  3. Applicants should submit (in electronic form) the following to the Postgraduate Officer:
    1. An A4 outline of their project, including a statement of the progress made thus far and a brief schedule of work for the coming 12 months.
    2. A brief statement of how they would use the scholarship and how it would further their academic work.
    3. A statement of other sources of funding applied for and/or received.
  4. Applicants should also ask their supervisors to submit a reference directly to the Postgraduate Officer. The reference should confirm the details of the application and make the case for support in the usual manner.
  5. The closing date for receipt of complete applications, including references, is 31 May 2010.
  6. Applications will be considered by a panel drawn from the Committee of the Society; the Society expects to be able to notify applicants of the outcome by early July.
  7. In making their decision the panel will consider applications in the round, and will take into account the academic quality of the proposal; the progress that the applicant has made thus far; the availability to the applicant of alternative sources of funding; the extent to which the applicant has made good use of these; the likelihood that the Society’s money will make a tangible difference to the likely success of the project concerned.

The German History Society supports its postgraduate members currently registered for a higher degree at a university in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland (defined as students enrolled on MA and PhD degrees as well as postdoctoral researchers without access to institutional sources of funding in the first two years after submission of their PhDs) as follows:

B. Financial assistance for attendance at GHS events, research / conference trips, workshop organization and language training

Please note that the terms and conditions of postgraduate financial assistance change as of 1 July 2010. As competition for GHS postgraduate funding has increased considerably over the last year, funding awards will be made in a formal competition held three times each year. The deadlines for submission are now:

1 May, 1 September and 1 January.

All decisions on funding will be by a panel within approximately one month of each deadline.

Post-Graduate Funding is now limited to the following purposes:

  1. Bursaries for attendance at German History Society events

    Postgraduate members of the German History Society currently registered for a higher degree at a university in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland are invited to apply for financial support to attend the Society’s own regional conferences and Annual General Meeting. Applications should only be made where all alternative avenues of financial support have already been exhausted; the Society will consider contributing up to £100 towards travel and accommodation expenses.

  2. Research Grants and Conference Attendance

    Postgraduate members of the Society currently registered for a higher degree at a university in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland may apply for a sum of up to £500 to assist with travel and accommodation expenses on research trips to archives / libraries with relevant resources for historians of the German lands OR for up to £500 for travel, accommodation and registration expenses associated with conference attendance overseas (priority will be given to those presenting papers). Again, other avenues of financial support must have been exhausted. Each application must include a detailed budget for the trip and a statement of the aims and objectives (no longer than 300 words). In addition, a reference from the relevant supervisor should indicate that no sources of funding are available from the home institution. Depending on the number of bids and the society's financial position, individual research projects may be supported more than once.

In the future, all funding proposals for organizing conferences or conference panels should be directed directly to the Secretary of the GHS.

Language funding is now offered under the aegis of a reciprocal agreement between the DAAD and the GHS. Applications for langauge funding should be submitted directly to the Secretary of the GHS by the dates listed on the GHS website.

Each application for financial assistance should include the relevant application form, a brief proposal, outline of expenditures and a letter of support from the postgraduate's supervisor / academic director. All materials should be sent by email to the Society's Postgraduate Officer, David Lederer, marked ‘GHS’ in the subject box. Applications received after a given deadline will be considered after the next deadline, unless the period in question for the proposal has already passed.

Payments from this fund can be made in sterling only, and are entirely at the discretion of the committee of the Society. No correspondence will be entered into where applications are refused.

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