Gilchrist Fieldwork Award

GILCHRIST EDUCATIONAL TRUST

The Gilchrist Fieldwork Award, of the Gilchrist Educational Trust, was first awarded in 1990. It is entirely owned, funded and awarded by the Trust, but operationally administered for a fee by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

The award, now annual, of £15,000 is given to a team of researchers with an outstanding proposal for research to advance geographical knowledge, that requires significant, challenging overseas fieldwork. The award should support a single field session of high-quality research and data collection. There should be strong links and collaborations with local agencies and communities. Local benefits should be demonstrated in applications.

Applications from geographers, ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, earth and environmental scientists, and researchers from related fields are all strongly encouraged. The award is open to established researchers. Applicants must hold a PhD at time of application and be based in a UK Higher Education Institution or equivalent research establishment.

Deadline: 23 November

Apply

Please email to grants@rgs.org for further information and application forms.

Eligibility Criteria

• The leader and most of the team should hold established posts in British university departments or equivalent research establishments.

• The team may come from one or more establishments within the UK ;

• Applicants must show links with the host country, preferably an official invitation or evidence of collaborative links with local agencies - the involvement of local scientific members is encouraged;

• The proposed research should involve a single field season of at least six weeks;

• The research should be original and challenging, preferably of potential applied benefit to the host country or region, it may be multi-disciplinary or devoted to a single scientific objective;

• Official permission to undertake the work is essential.

Previous Leaders and projects of the Gilchrist Fieldwork Award:-

2023 Dr Callum Munday University of Oxford
Project: The Kalahari Heat Experiment

2022 Dr Max Webb Royal Holloway, University of London.
Project: Isolation in Paradise – How Island Arc Collision and Rapid Tectonic Uplift have influenced species diversification in remote New Guinea

2018 Dr Melissa Murphy University College London
Project: High-Arctic Rivers: A source or sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide?”

2016. Dr F. Ellwood, University of the West of England.
Project: How does the conversion of tropical rainforest to oil palm plantation disturb ecosystem function?

2014. Dr H.L. Burdett, University of St Andrews.
Project: Past, present, future. Determining the climate tolerance thresholds of Maldivian corals, and the impact this has on the nation’s natural capital.

2012. Professor S.E. Darby, University of Southampton.
Project: Mud, Monsoons and the Mekong: using Tonle Sap Lake sediment records to derive a 5,000 year record of the Asian monsoon and its impacts on Mekong River flood regimes.

2010. An award was not made.

2008. Dr A. Hubbard, University of Aberystwyth.
Project: Monitoring and modelling basal dynamics and flow-acceleration across the Greenland Ice Sheet.

2006. Dr N. Stuart, University of Edinburgh.
Project: Radar mapping of tropical savannas.

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