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.

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 (international) to contribute towards the costs of registration and travel to attend the full conference.

Grant funding is not available for accommodation or any food and beverage costs.

Please note: receipts will be requested as part of the grant payment process.

Application criteria

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

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

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Have a paper or poster, as either sole or multiple author, accepted or submitted as part of the programme for the conference
Be meeting the majority of the cost of attending the conference yourself and you must not be the Principal Investigator (PI) on a research grant
Have booked, and be intending to attend, all or most of the conference, not just the presentation in which you are personally involved
Be at least a Graduate Member of the society to apply
Bursaries can only be offered to early career psychologists working in the United Kingdom

Bursaries can only be offered to early career psychologists employed at a HEI, or employed as a practitioner psychologist, in the United Kingdom.

You must include:

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 funding available, in order for us to consider the application

Please note: you must ensure that documentation is in a word document format that BPS can edit and anonymise.

In addition, your Head of Department or Line Manager (as appropriate) must indicate their support where indicated in the application form.

Applications will be assessed according to:

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

How to apply

Forms must be completed and submitted online.

April applications

Submit application

October applications

Submit application

All applications are anonymously assessed to discourage unconscious bias.

Please provide a copy of your CV and abstract, ensuring that they are in a word document format that BPS can edit and anonymise.

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

Please note: We cannot accept late applications.