Discover Funding Opportunities

Arctic Club Award

The Arctic Club Award seeks to promote and support interesting, innovative and adventurous expeditions in the Arctic, particularly for young people. Awards are made annually from the Arctic Club Award Fund, held within the Gino Watkins Memorial Fund (Charity 208791), and administered by Members of the Gino Watkins Memorial Committee (which includes Arctic Club members). Each year, one or more expeditions are given an Arctic Club Award. Applicants may receive a combined award from both the Gino Watkins Memorial Fund and the Arctic Club Award Fund. Members of these expeditions are invited as guests to the Arctic Club Dinner. The Arctic Club also makes small awards to individuals for training purposes such as expedition training, polar bear safety, and ice safety.

Monica Cole Research Grant

The Monica Cole Research Grant offers £1,000 each year to a physical geography undergraduate or Masters student undertaking original fieldwork overseas. Named after Monica Cole, a leader in the field of geo-botany who held the position of Chair of Geography at Bedford College and received the Society's Murchison Medal for major contributions to the geography of South Africa and to the understanding of savannas. Applicants must be registered at a UK Higher Education Institution. The grant supports student-led research in physical geography disciplines including glaciology, climate science, geomorphology, biogeography, and related earth science fields.

RGS-IBG Small Research Grants

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Small Research Grants provide awards of up to £3,500 to early career researchers for original desk or field-based research in any area of geography. Each year several grants are given to early career researcher individuals who are up to 10 years post PhD. One grant of up to £3,500 is awarded from the 20th International Geographical Congress Fund. The Jasmin Leila Award and the Rob Potter Award may be given as a supplement to projects supported under the scheme, or as independent awards. Applicants are expected to hold a PhD at the time of applying, must be affiliated with a UK Higher Education Institution or equivalent research establishment and must be Fellows or Members of the Society. These awards are only available to individuals. At risk academic geographers hosted at UK institutions through programmes such as Cara are eligible to apply. The grants support original research across all areas of geography, including both human and physical geography topics.

Walters Kundert Fellowship

The Walters Kundert Fellowship offers an annual grant of £10,000 to support post-PhD field research within Arctic or high mountain environments. Established in 2017, the Fellowship is supported through a generous donation by the Walters Kundert Charitable Trust and encourages applicants from across the spectrum of geographical research to enhance the understanding and well-being of the planet's Arctic and high mountain environments through research. The Fellowship specifically supports field research in physical geography within Arctic and/or high mountain environments, with preference for field studies that advance the understanding of environmental change past or present. Applications are open to post-PhD researchers affiliated with a UK Higher Education Institution or equivalent research establishment, or Fellows and members of the Royal Geographical Society who are employed outside the UK. The Fellowship aims to encourage research that addresses critical questions about environmental change in these sensitive regions, including topics such as glacier dynamics, permafrost disturbances, climate change impacts, and ecosystem responses in Arctic and high mountain settings.

RGS Explore Grants

The RGS Explore Grants offer £500 to £5,000 to support teams undertaking overseas expeditions. As the successor to the Geographical Fieldwork Grants, the Society's longest running grant scheme, these awards are designed to support and enable the next generation of explorers and field researchers, especially those undertaking their first overseas projects. Awards will be made to teams undertaking original, challenging journeys with meaningful local collaborations at their core, aiming to advance geographical knowledge and deepen understanding of the world's environments, people and places. The expedition is expected to take place outside of the UK with a minimum of four weeks in the field, ideally undertaken between April and October.