The RSTMH (Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) Early Career Grants Programme provides awards of up to £5,000 for those who have not had equivalent research funding in their own name before. Applicants can be of any nationality and based anywhere in the world. 

Purpose of Early Career Grants 

To enable early career researchers and global health professionals in the field of tropical medicine or global health to undertake clinical or scientific research and/or fieldwork, either as stand-alone projects or distinct elements within a larger project. 

Thematic scope 

Applications can be on any area of tropical medicine or global health including infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, neglected tropical diseases and external factors that affect global health.  

The programme funds projects across the research spectrum, including lab-based, clinical, translation, implementation, and policy-related research, either as stand-alone projects or distinct elements within a larger project. The Early Career Grants also fund research projects linked to PhDs, but do not fund tuition fees for PhD or MSc degrees. 

The Early Career Grants will not fund projects that use only secondary data. 

Early Career Grant value and timeline 

The maximum RSTMH Early Career Grant award is GBP £5,000 including any relevant tax on purchases.  

One or more awardees may be funded or part-funded by The Denis Burkitt Fellowship Fund. If this is the case, RSTMH may ask the awardee to participate in separate award activities.  

The project should start between September and December 2025 after the planned payment phase. Please note this may change if RSTMH receives a very high number of applications. If an applicant’s project has a strict timeframe, they should let RSTMH know that when they submit their application. The project should be completed within a year of it being started. Please note that Early Career Grants cannot be used for retrospective projects (projects which have already started or been completed).  The applicant should indicate on the application form if they expect the project to finish after this time. 

The key dates for the programme are below. If an applicant is not able to deliver their project or report to these timings, then they should consider whether they should apply this year. If an applicant is awarded but unable to complete their project within the timeframe, RSTMH may ask for a refund of the grant money. 

These timings may vary depending on the number of applications received. Adequate notice of any changes shall be advertised on the RSTMH website.

Deadline for applications	14th May 2025, Midday (12pm BST)
Funding payments made	September-November 2025
Projects start	December 2025
Projects finish	December 2026
Reports due	By March 2027

Eligibility for Early Career Grants 

Early Career Grants are for those who have not received a research grant of £5,000 or more in their own name before. They can be based in any country and can be working in any organisation.  

RSTMH anticipate that most applicants will be at the start of their careers, though it recognises that some more experienced professionals may be new to research and will still be eligible to apply for a grant.  

Both members and non-members of RSTMH can apply for an RSTMH Early Career Grant funded by RSTMH partners. However, if awarded, membership will be provided to awardees (until the awardee’s research report delivery deadline) to ensure they can benefit from the full benefits of membership of RSTMH.  

Applicants who are existing RSTMH members are also eligible for RSTMH funded grants as part of the Early Career Grants Programme. Find out more about RSTMH membership and its other benefits here. 

Application criteria 

Applicants for an Early Career Grant can be based anywhere in the world and can be of any nationality.  

Applicants must meet the following criteria:  

• Not received any research funding of £5,000 or more in their own name before.  
• Have a clear research plan for which they are seeking support.  
• If applicants apply whilst affiliated with, or employed by, a particular organisation, and then they seek to transfer to another organisation during an award, written permission to move the grant activity is required from RSTMH and this will be granted only in exceptional circumstances.  
• Have access to adequate supervision from the same supervisor for the duration of the project. 
• Have the appropriate insurance to carry out the research. 
• Be able to submit all Programme related-documents and forms to RSTMH in English.
• The project must comply with ethical standards relevant to the field of study (e.g. human subjects, animal welfare, environmental impact), and the applicant must have the necessary ethics approval to conduct research in the study area.  
• Hold a registered bank account which accepts GBP. Please note that a condition of an award is that grant funds are paid into the awardee’s personal bank account and not an institutional account. If this presents an issue, the applicant should let RSTMH know. 
• Have not received an RSTMH Early Career Grant before. 
• Have submitted only one application for an RSTMH grant in any one year. 
• Not be an RSTMH global assessor in the same year. 
• Not be seeking funds for a project already started or completed. 
• Not be a named referee on an RSTMH grant application in the same year. 

Applicants are encouraged to include costs which would enable their projects to maximise diversity and inclusion, and community participation. 

Criteria used to assess applications for Early Career Grants 

• Early career status. 
• Validity of the research question. 
• Quality of the project design and methodology.  
• Feasibility of delivering the project outcomes. 
• Accuracy and reasonableness of the budget. 
• Impact of research project. 
• Value for money. 

Early Career Grants eligible costs 

The list below provides general guidance about the costs which are eligible under the Early Career Grants Programme. RSTMH asks applicants to discuss with the Grants Manager any exceptions to the below financial limits on each category.  

Please note that the budget provided in the application form must be written in detail, using the headings outlined in the application form. Each budget line should be broken down to show unit costs and quantities for each cost. Budget items should be based on evidence of the relevant costs of time and services, and not general estimates. The review team at RSTMH may ask to see evidence of budgeted costings whilst assessing applications.  

If an item costs more than the limits indicated below, applicants can use other sources of funding to top up e.g. If a piece of equipment costs £3,000 and only £2,000 is allowable under the programme, the applicant could cover the additional £1,000 from another source.

Category	Description and examples	Limit of expenditure
Consumables	Disposable items that are used up during the course of the project, such as personal protective equipment and labware.	No limit – but reasonableness will be assessed
Fieldwork expenses	Project costs incurred in the field, such as per diems for the PI or research team, local travel costs and internet costs.	No limit – but reasonableness will be assessed
International travel	International travel to carry out the research for the PI.	50% of total budget
Equipment	Non-disposable items purchased or hired to be able to conduct the study.	50% of total budget
Computers, tablets and phones	Purchase or hire of technology, in order to carry out the project.	20% of total budget
Training	Training that is related to, and directly relevant to, the project.	20% of total budget
Local dissemination	Costs for disseminating findings locally.	20% of total budget
Ethics approval	Cost of ethics approval from the relevant organisation(s).	10% of total budget
Contingency	To cover potential events that are not specifically accounted for in a cost estimate, such as inflation.	No limit – but reasonableness will be assessed
Tax on purchases where relevant	Tax on expenditure of purchased items.	No limit – but reasonableness will be assessed
Supervisor stipends	Reasonable stipends for the applicant’s project supervisor. This must be the individual selected to supervise an applicant’s project.  A stipend is the fixed amount of money paid to someone assisting the applicant’s project. This is a form of pay and should not be used to cover the individuals’ daily costs, such as sustenance and travel – these should be listed separately under per diems.	10% of total budget
Data analysis and statistical expertise	Costs of individuals or software carrying out data and statistical analysis on the project data.	10% of total budget
Transcription fees	Costs of individuals or software transcribing audio recordings for the project.	10% of total budget
Translation costs	Costs of individuals or software translating materials for the project.	10% of total budget
Overhead costs for institutions	If including overhead costs, the applicant must make sure to provide a clear summary of the institution whose overheads are being contributed towards, how the sum has been calculated, and what kind of services the applicant will be using the institution for. For example, if they are paying towards overhead costs for the use of a laboratory in their research institution.	10% of total budget
Stipends for research assistants or community health workers	A stipend is the fixed amount of money paid to the PI’s research assistants or community health workers. This is a form of pay and should not be used to cover the individuals’ daily costs, such as sustenance and travel – these should be listed separately under per diems.	10% of total budget
Stationery	Stationery purchased and used during the course of the project, such as printing costs and pens.	10% of total budget
Reimbursement for participants’ time	Reimbursement to participants for their time, which can be given as either a cash reimbursement or a gift/item worth up to £2.	A maximum of £2 per participant.
Reasonable travel reimbursement	Separately to reimbursement for their time, participants can be reimbursed for their travel to the study site.	No limit – but reasonableness will be assessed

Further guidance on the budget, categories and expenditure limits can be found here.  

Clarifications on the budget may be sought by the RSTMH team during the due diligence stage of review. At this time, additional lines cannot be added to the budget, and costs cannot be increased. It is recommended to include a contingency line if the applicant considers there to be a risk that costs will arise after the application is submitted. 

If awarded, receipts or other evidence of the purchase of all items must be submitted as part of the awardee’s final report to RSTMH and kept for seven years after the final report has been submitted as they may be audited by RSTMH and its funding partners.  

If this grant application is part of a larger research programme, matched funding must be in place at the time of submission of the Early Career Grant application. In addition to the application budget, applicants must also include a brief outline of the larger research programme’s budget in the application.

Early Career Grants ineligible costs 

Budgets submitted as part of an application to the programme must include costs that are strictly relevant to the associated project.  

In addition to irrelevant costs, the following items are also ineligible to be covered by the grant funds: 

• Alcohol.  
• Salary or stipend for awardee. 
• Registration fees, travel and accommodation for conference or event attendance.  
• Publishing costs/fees for academic journals*. Awardees may be eligible for an automatic publication fee waiver or discount for the RSTMH journals. Some awardees may be eligible to apply for publishing costs. 
• Miscellaneous costs.  
• Business class travel or alcohol consumption.  
• Tuition fees for PhD or MSc. 
• Bank charges. 

*   RSTMH journals, like many others, offer waivers or discounted rates for publication costs. RSTMH also offers highly discounted rates to developing countries, based on OUP (its publisher) policy (N.B. Does not include India). 

If successful, each awardee will be gifted RSTMH membership as part of their award. This will be paid for independently of the award by the funder and should not be included as a budget item. 

If any of the above ineligible costs are included in the budget of an applicant, then the ineligible costs will be taken off the budget or the application may be declined. Alternative items cannot be added to replace the cost of the removed items. 

Find out more and apply by May 14, 2025.