RHS Panel Grants support the formation of panels to present, in-person, research on a shared historical theme at an academic conference, or equivalent event, in history or a cognate discipline. Launched in 2025, this is the first year of a new programme which is generously supported by the Scouloudi Foundation.
About the Panel Grants programme
The scheme will support the creation of panels, of up to four principal participants, whose formation would not otherwise have been possible, in their entirety due to an absence of financial support.
In establishing this programme, the Society seeks to make possible collaborative conference participation and research dissemination at a time when budgets for event attendance and travel are being cut for many. The scheme also aims to support panel membership by independent historians with no access to funding for conference participation.
The Society expects to make up to two awards, of £1500 per panel, in this first round of Scouloudi Panel Grants to enable attendance at conferences between 1 September 2025 and 31 July 2026.
The call for this first round opens on Wednesday 19 March and will close on Friday 23 May 2025.
Eligible panels will comprise three or four participants presenting a paper. At least one of the proposed panellists (as lead applicant) will be either a current fellow or Member of the Royal Historical Society.
Successful applicants will receive a provisional award which will be confirmed, with payment of the grant, on receipt of written confirmation of acceptance to speak as a panel at the designated conference.
Applications must be submitted via the Society’s applications portal >
Grants support historians to form panels to present historical work, in-person, on a shared theme, at a specific conference or equivalent. Funding of £1500 per panel will be made available to support the following costs associated with the creation of and presentation by a panel:
- conference or event attendance fees;
- travel to the conference, in line with the Society’s expenses and carbon policy;
- accommodation, if required, and reasonable expenses for the duration of the conference.
The venue of the specified conference will depend on the location of panel members. However, the extent of funding available means grants will most likely be given for panels taking place in a home country or a close neighbouring country: for example, for UK applicants this will most likely mean attendance at an event in the United Kingdom or Europe.
Eligibility and making an application for a Panel Grant, 2025-26
Applications are invited for panels that address a coherent and common subject area, relating (but not limited) to:
- any historical topic or question, not limited by chronology or geography
- historical methodologies and practice;
- approaches to historical study and its promotion, e.g. public history, work by historians across professional sectors, interdisciplinary working with other practitioners in the arts, humanities, social sciences and/or STEM;
- teaching and/or the communication of history;
- analysis of and advocacy for the historical discipline and profession in higher education or other sectors.
Grants are available to historians those who are:
- at any career stage, from advanced PhD onwards;
- working either in higher education or as a professional historian in a related sector, e.g. museums, archives, heritage or broadcasting;
- engaged in scholarly research as an independent historian.
Successful panel applications will:
- comprise between three and four principal participants (independent of a chair) of whom at least one panellist (as lead applicant) will be a current Fellow or Member of the Royal Historical Society;
- involve speakers from at least two different institutions or organisations, where applicable;
- combine speakers at a range of career stages and backgrounds, including at least one early career historian (current completing or within five years of completion of a PhD);
- seek to bring into dialogue practitioners from a range of backgrounds: e.g. higher education; museum, archives and heritage; schools; and public or community history groups;
- be able to demonstrate the need for RHS funding to establish the panel due to the absence of alternative financial support;
- undertake a panel at a recognised academic conference held between 1 September 2025 and 31 July 2026;
- promote their panel as supported by the award of a ‘Scouloudi Panel Grant from by Royal Historical Society’;
- provide a short report for the Society on the panel as a collaborative exercise and its contribution to historical understanding, knowledge and/or practice, of value to others;
- will receive an initial provisional award, followed by the transfer of funds on confirmation that their panel has been accepted by the conference (if confirmation is not possible by the date of this programme’s close and decision-making).
When awarding grants, primary consideration will be given to the proposed quality and value of the panel; the distinctiveness of a panel’s composition, drawing on historians’ varied affiliations within and beyond higher education; the suitability of a panel to the specified conference; and a demonstrable need for funding to facilitate the activity.
In this and all similar awards, the Society is keen to support historians who lack access to alternative resources (institutional or other) to enhance their work, or where funding opportunities are very limited.
Applications must be submitted via the Society’s applications portal >
Questions about the Scouloudi Panel Grants, 2025-26, may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.