The British Psychological Society
  • My BPS

    • Early Career Conference Bursary Scheme

    This Bursary is available to support members of the society, who are UK early career psychologists, to attend (physically or virtually) any academic conference, either in the UK or internationally, relevant to their work.

    For the purposes of the bursary scheme, we define an early career psychologist as a person who is within eight years of completion of their doctoral degree or practitioner doctorate in psychology and PhD researchers.

    Deadline

    This is a biannual scheme, with deadlines usually in April and October each year.

    You can only submit one bursary application per round.

    2025 April applications
    • Scheme open date: 03 February 2025 at 9:00am
    • Scheme close date: 06 April 2025 at 11:59pm
    2025 October applications
    • Scheme open date: 18 August 2025 at 9:00am
    • Scheme close date: 05 October 2025 at 11:59pm

    Grant

    Each bursary consists of up to £250 (UK) or £500 (overseas) to contribute towards the costs of registration and travel to attend the conference.

    Funding is not available for accommodation, or food and beverage costs.

    Receipts are requested as part of the grant payment process.

    Please note: receipts submitted for the grant payment must clearly show the full fee/s, state that the fee has been paid (not pending for example) and show the full date.

    Application criteria

    Please note that application criteria and eligibility are subject to change.

    Any changes may be applied when the scheme is open to application.

    All applications are anonymised by the BPS and then assessed by the panel members to discourage any unconscious bias.

    We will not consider or accept any late applications.

    Assessment criteria

    Applications will be assessed by a panel according to:

    • Rigour of paper or poster
    • Originality & significance of paper or poster
    • Relevance of the conference to your area of research/teaching or practice
    • Networking opportunities afforded by attending the conference

    You must include in your application:

    • A copy of your CV and an abstract.
    • An abstract of your poster/paper with the application, along with official confirmation that you have submitted it to the Conference (applications will not be considered without this).
    • Documentary confirmation of acceptance of the paper/poster and evidence of conference registration at the time of application if the paper is already accepted.
    • A clear explanation of the relevance of the conference to your area of research/teaching or practice within the application.
    • Full details of how you intend to meet any costs above the level of grant funding available, for us to consider the application.

    Eligibility

    Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

    • Have a paper or poster, as either sole or multiple authors, accepted or submitted as part of the programme for the conference.
    • Be meeting a percentage of the cost of attending the conference and must not be the Principal Investigator (PI) on a research grant.
    • If the applicant is funded by a UKRI institution they are still eligible to make an application.
    • Have booked, and be intending to attend, all or most of the conference, not just the presentation in which the applicant is personally involved.
    • Be at least a current Graduate Member of the society.
    • Bursaries can only be offered to early career psychologists employed at a HEI, or employed as a practitioner psychologist, in the United Kingdom.
    • An applicants Head of Department or Line Manager (as appropriate) must confirm their support where required within the application form.
    • Please note, any documentation provided should be in word document format to allow the BPS to edit and anonymise. If anonymising cannot be completed by the BPS; the documents will be returned to the applicant to change formatting and will cause delays in application processing.

    Conflicts of interest

    You must declare all personal and professional conflicts of interest.

    A conflict of interest will not prevent acceptance of the application.

    If we become aware of a conflict of interest that has not been declared, we will withdraw the application. 

    How to apply

    All applications are anonymously assessed to discourage unconscious bias.

    Please note: We cannot accept late applications.

    April applications

    • Applications are currently closed

    October applications

    • Applications are currently closed

    Contact the Awards and Grants team at [email protected] with any questions and queries.

    Final Grant Report

    Every grant recipient is required to provide a final report on completion of their project.

    These reports provide feedback for members and potential grant applicants about how the society has allocated grant money.

    It also allows the BPS to assess the success of the projects funded within the agreed grant period.

    If successful, you will be required to complete this form within one month of the project or event completion date.