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PhD grants

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STICERD is both a thriving research community within the London School of Economics and Political Science and a source of funding for a variety of School-wide initiatives.

Our centres offer small research grants for LSE academic staff, grants for PhD students, and a programme for academics to visit the LSE for an extended period. (Please see below).

For all enquiries about STICERD grants please contact the STICERD Committee and Grants Administrator, Claire Harman, email: c.l.harman@lse.ac.uk.

General Information

  1. Only PhD students whose supervisor is affiliated to one of STICERD's research programmes are eligible to apply. Funding is only awarded to support their PhD research. Their advisor will be asked to provide a supporting statement which confirms this. Each supervisor is allowed to nominate one student per round.
  2. Applications for funding are considered up to a maximum of £5,000.

  3. Applications are considered on both the intrinsic merit of the proposed research and the value for money that the proposal represents.

    Applicants are requested to explain clearly what the objectives are, what methods will be used and why the research is novel. Applications that do not contain this information are unlikely to be approved.

    Applications that do not make clear why large budget items (such as overseas trips) are essential to the research may be rejected or be awarded only reduced funding.

Please note that STICERD requires successful applicants to comply with the LSE's Research Ethics Policy. Submitting a copy of the self-certification or ethical approval to STICERD is required previous to the disbursement of any funds.

Please read the Guidance on LSE research ethics, code of research conduct, and training.

Applications will be considered twice a year at the Winter and Spring term meetings of the Steering Committee.

In the academic year 2026-2027, the deadline for the first round is 01 December 2026. The deadline for the second round is 24 April 2027 (23:59 BST).

How to apply:

Please read the application information before you apply to find out about eligibility criteria and terms and conditions of application.

Please complete the online application form (you can view the order of the questions here).

As part of LSE's goal to actively address the issue of equality and diversity, we have introduced a monitoring system for our research grants. We would appreciate it if you could complete this quick monitoring survey.

For information please get in touch with Claire Harman, email: c.l.harman@lse.ac.uk.