North East of England Branch

Overview

This award has been established to assist British Psychological Society (BPS) members who wish to undertake a public engagement project or initiative in the North-East of England. 

The awards are open to applications for psychologists at any career stage. Applications are encouraged from early career psychologists who may wish to undertake a small engagement project, as well as more experienced psychologists.

The focus of the grant is on public engagement in the North-East of England. 

Nominations are welcome from BPS members who are not based in the North-East of England but whose work would be delivered to the public in the North-East.

Applications can be made for a specific one-off engagement project or a number of linked projects.  

Grant

The recipient will be awarded £1200 to fund a public engagement project in the North-East and deliver a lecture at one of the North-East branch's events. Evidence must be provided in the form of receipts to demonstrate how the funds were used. 

Regulations and eligibility

• This award is open to BPS members who plan to undertake a public engagement initiative in the North East of England
• The applicant (or in the case of groups, the lead member) must be a member of the BPS
• Applicants must provide links to output or other evidence, e.g. photographs, and contact details for a referee who will be involved in the project
• The winner must be prepared to supply a short article on the project(s) for the Branch to use on the website, publication and / or social media channels.

In addition, the award winner must be willing to deliver a short presentation on the project(s) within 18 months of receiving the award either:

• at the Branch conference
  or
• to the public or to members at another branch event (this need not require travel). 

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Thursday 1st May 2025.

Submit an application online now

Applicants, once they have had a letter confirming their award, must claim their grant, after providing the requested report, by completing a BPS expenses claim form and sending to [email protected].

Selection Criteria

Each application will be considered on its own merit by the awarding panel who are appointed by the North East of England Branch Committee. 

The panel will consider all applications on the basis of the impact and quality of the contribution. 

The following criteria will be used to score each application:

• Relevance of engagement project to the public interest
• Relevance of engagement project to psychology
• Innovation and creativity in the engagement project
• Quality of engagement project

Public Engagement may include but is not limited to:

• Public lectures, events, exhibitions and other face-to-face activities
• Radio, television or film
• Publishing on the web
• Community based activities
• Social media campaigns

Recipients may include those communicating their own research findings or those who ensure that a range of high quality psychological evidence is communicated (for example, via television/radio documentaries, science fairs, public engagement projects or newsprint and the emerging area of e-media including blogs and YouTube).

This could also be in recognition of consistently good work over a number of years or outstanding contributions in a single year.

Award

This award has been established to recognise the research work undertaken by undergraduate psychology students studying in the North-East of England.

There are 10 prizes of vouchers worth up to £70 for each winner.

Apply for the Undergraduate Award

Criteria 

• The award is for a 500 to 1,000 word written article that describes the work carried out as part of an undergraduate degree in any area of psychology. It should be a self-contained article, which is able to communicate research findings in an engaging style to the awarding panel.
• Applicants must provide a letter of support from an academic supervisor or their contact details.
• The award winner must permit the NEEB to publish the winning article on the branch website, publication and / or social media channels.
• The award winner may be invited to present a short presentation on their project at a local branch event.
• Entries must be individual and must not have been published previously.
• Recent graduates (within 18 months of graduating) from an undergraduate degree course from a university based in the North-East of England, are eligible. Applicants must have submitted their dissertation/thesis /final research paper within the last academic year. Submissions are welcomed from students researching any area of psychology.

Awarding Panel 

The awarding panel will be appointed by the North East of England Branch Committee. The panel will consider all submissions on the basis of the impact and quality of the contribution.

Award

This award has been established to recognise the research work undertaken by postgraduate psychology students studying in the North-East of England.

There are 10 prizes of vouchers worth up to £70 for each winner.

Apply for the Postgraduate Award

Criteria

• The award is for a 500 to 1,000 word written article that describes the work carried out as part of a postgraduate degree in any area of psychology. It should be a self-contained article, which is able to communicate research findings in an engaging style to the awarding panel.
• Applicants must provide a letter of support from an academic supervisor or their contact details.
• The award winner must permit the NEEB to publish the winning article on the branch website, publication and / or social media channels.
• The award winner may be invited to present a short presentation on their project at a local branch event.
• Entries must be individual and must not have been published previously.

Awarding panel

The awarding panel will be appointed by the North East of England Branch Committee. The panel will consider all submissions on the basis of the impact and quality of the contribution.

This prize is awarded for the best undergraduate dissertation at each BPS-accredited North East University.

The British Psychological Society North East Branch is delighted to introduce its undergraduate dissertation prize in the region.

Each university nominates its best undergraduate dissertation, and each winner is awarded a voucher up to the value of £100. 

Winners are invited to write a 1500-word summary article which will be published in the annual publication, the BPS Branch Awards.

The summary of your dissertation will be published in our BPS Branch Awards publication. Every article has a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier) meaning their abstracts can be discoverable via Google Scholar.

Authors also have retained rights for their articles including green open access, so they can post their own articles to online repositories.

The Board of Examiners at each University will decide on the dissertation submitted to the North East Branch.

How to apply

Only eligible University Psychology Departments will nominate students to the BPS  North East. List of eligible universities are above. 

Please note: Nominees (students) can not apply for this prize directly through the BPS North East.

Submit a nomination now

If you consider yourself eligible to be nominated for this Prize and have not been please contact [email protected].

Deadlines:

• 21 June: deadline for universities to submit nominations.
• 30 June: North East Branch will email successful nominees asking if they wish to submit a 1,500-word shortened dissertation for publication in BPS Branch Awards
• 23 August: deadline for submission of shortened dissertations (if applicable)
• 15 September: nominees receive initial feedback on their submissions.
• 30 September: Re-submission deadline.
• 31 October: North East Branch will issue the prizes.  Please note that we will not accept any submissions after this date

Conference bursaries are available to support members of the BPS North East Branch to attend (physically or virtually) any academic or practitioner conference or CPD event relevant to the applicants work.

We have 4 x £350 conference bursaries for academics and practitioners working in universities in the North East. 

Criteria (please read before submitting your application)

• Each bursary consists of up to £350 to contribute towards the costs of registration and/or travel (if applicable). Please note: that there will be 4 bursaries available only.
• All applicants must be members or student subscribers of the British Psychological Society within North East.
• All applicants must agreement to provide receipts for all relevant expenditure to the Branch committee members.
• Applications must make a strong case for need and the benefits of attendance.
• It is expected that applicants will not apply more than once each year.

Application requirements (please read before submitting your application)

Applicants will be required to provide:

1. Name
2. Organisation/affiliation
3. BPS membership number
4. Details of the conference that the applicant wishes to attend, including title of event, date(s) and registration costs
5. A statement of not more than 150 words providing a brief explanation of why a bursary is needed (e.g., because a postgraduate student is not funded by a research council or their institution), why the applicant should be awarded a bursary, and how she or he will benefit from attending the conference

All successful applicants will be requested to submit a 500-word blog style summary of the event attended suitable for publication in the North East Branch newsletter.

How to apply

Applications are now open.

Submit an application for a conference or event bursary

Submissions will be reviewed by a sub-panel of the North East Branch committee members.