Close

Student Event Funding Competition

The Student Event Funding Competition provides LSE ESRC DTP students’ the opportunity to create, develop and lead their own events and activities and to build student cohort development across disciplines. This is a competitive scheme and is an opportunity for LSE ESRC DTP students to gain leadership, management and budget skills. 

The scheme has provided previous students the opportunity to build a safe and enriching peer learning environment, receive constructive feedback on their work and create a platform for thought-provoking exchanges. 

This scheme is funded by the ESRC via the LSE ESRC DTP. LSE ESRC DTP funded students only are eligible to apply to this funding competition.

Please read the Guidance and Conditions of Funding before applying as incomplete applications will not be considered. 

The previous student led events that have been organised with the fund can be found below. They demonstrate the types of event funding applications that are successful. 

To make an application click here

Types of Event

We welcome applications under the following three areas:

1.  Workshops and Conferences

Students can apply for funding to hold a one or two day multi-disciplinary conference in the PhD Academy Training Room. Students are encouraged to invite research users from non-academic fields where appropriate to build interdisciplinary networks.

2.   New Training or Masterclass Initiative

Students can apply for funding to organise a one or two day training or masterclass event in the PhD Academy. Applications must be for new areas of training that are not already provided by the LSE or PhD Academy and will further develop PhD students’ skills and knowledge. Applicants could deliver the training themselves or engage a trainer to provide the training.

3.   Developing Knowledge Exchange Opportunities

Students can apply for funding to organise activities that relate to developing knowledge exchange activities with non-academic partners. For example a group of students may wish to put together a response to a government consultation, or host an exhibition with a community group for the public or produce a film that could influence or change the way stakeholders think and react.

Application Deadlines

The next two main timetables for applications are below.

 We may be able to consider applications outside of the normal timetable - please contact phdacademy@lse.ac.uk with the subject 'Student Funding Competition'

1. For events to be held during Winter Term 2024/25 (20 January – 4 April 2025), we recommend submitting your application by the end of Autumn Term Week 10.

2. For events to be held during Spring Term 2024/25 (6 May – 20 June 2025), we recommend submitting your application by the end of Winter Term Week 10.

Events are not usually held during Autumn term but virtual events can be held at any point of the year. 

We expect applicants to note the timetable above, the time it will take to receive a decision on their application (see Guidance and Conditions of Funding below) and plan around the date of their proposed event accordingly.

We recognise that applicants may need to take a flexible approach when planning future events and plan for events to be accessible both on-line and in-person.  If this is the case then please address this in your application.  For example identify costs that would only apply if the event was held in-person.

Guidance and Conditions of Funding

1. To ensure that as many students as possible get access to this fund, the scheme is competitive and funding will be capped at £500 for a one day event and £1,000 for an event of two days.

2. Budgets and costs must be properly researched and planned. Additional funding post application approval is not available.

3. Please note, this is a competitive scheme and funding decisions will be based on the information provided in the application form.

4. A PhD Academy panel will look closely at each application on a case by case basis, taking into account the quality of the proposal. The panel will notify you of any clarifications required and once these are received, will notify you of the outcome of your application.  Applicants will be informed of the panel's the initial decision within 3 weeks of the application deadline.

5. The panel will prioritise applications for events that have not received funding in the past. This is not a fund for repeated events. 

6. Events are to be hosted by the PhD Academy in the teaching space. Room availability should be checked in advance of submitting your application with the PhD Academy team. The training room has a maximum capacity of 38 (with tables) to 48 (chairs only). If the training room is not a suitable venue for your event this must be acknowledged and justified within your application.

7. Events should be held on week days, Monday to Friday only as LSE catering cannot be provided at the weekend.

8. PhD Academy and ESRC logos are to be used in promotional materials and both acknowledged as funders. PhD Academy staff will supply these to successful applicants.

9. Students from other DTPs and external networks are to be invited to the event. Applicants must supply the PhD Academy with information so we can send external invitations on your behalf.

10. Please note that funds will not be given for an administrator to organise the event. Part of the purpose of the funding is to give students valuable experience in organising academic workshops and events.

11. Please email the DTP Team at phdacademy@lse.ac.uk with queries around room bookings and orders for internal catering.

12. Applicants who receive funding are required to write a short report on the event. The report should include details of numbers of delegates, indicating if any were ESRC funded students or from non-academic institutions and give an outline of the key successes and lessons learned from the event. 

13. To claim expenses, organisers will need to submit relevant receipts (i.e. travel, external speakers only), a programme of the event and an attendee list after the event to the phdacademy@lse.ac.uk. Please note that we do not fund international travel for external speakers.

Previous Student Led Events 

2023/24

Camilo Acero Vargas - Land, War, and Development: Colombia in Comparative Perspective 

A workshop where early London-based PhD students and early-career researchers from International Development, Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, or Economics were given an opportunity to present. Speakers were selected based on the alignment of their research topic with the theme of the conference.

Ross Barker - LSE Demography Series 

The pop@LSE seminar series began in the academic year of 2022-2023 with a format including a speaker giving a lecture or seminar roughly once-a-month. The seminar was public and open to all in-person or via zoom. It provided a space for collaboration and learning both for demographers at the LSE across multiple departments, but also, for students and researchers across the UK and further afield.

Sacha Hilhorst - PhD/ECR Workshop for the Study of Politics and Society

A workshop that followed on from the British Journal of Sociology conference on 15-16 April 2024.The day included the following: three parallel workstreams, morning and afternoon workshop sessions, a keynote lecture by a prominent scholar and a drinks reception.

Jacob Lypp - Critical Perspectives and the Perspectives of Critique: First biennial Symposium for ECRs at the LSE

A public keynote followed by a two day workshop event, geared towards postgraduate students and early-career-researchers working on Europe. There were three workshop ‘streams’ organised for the 34 attendees: Workshop stream 1: “Violence and the politics of memory”, Workshop stream 2: “The political economy of precarity” and Workshop stream 3: “Secularism and the racialisation of religion”. In each stream, researchers spent two days presenting and discussing each other’s work.

2022/23

Gabriela Cabaña Alvear -  Anthropology and degrowth: deepening the dialogue

A workshop where participants where 35 participants, from a range of international universities, were invited to present a paper. Participants came from both academic and non-academic backgrounds, working in anthropology but also other disciplines. It provided meaningful dialogue between scholars and non-scholars, in direct collaboration with communities such as rural shepherds in Spain and indigenous communities affected by lithium extraction in Chile.

Remy-Paulin Twahirwa - Repair as writing/writing as repair

A workshop that included 25 PhD students, including the organisers, from various institutions and across different departments/disciplines. The workshop included opening remarks by Dr Gala Rexer, followed by a writing session with the Palestinian author Heba Hayek (Winner of the Creative Award in the 2022 Palestine Book Awards). The third part of the workshop was dedicated to sharing some challenges PhD researchers/early-career academics face with either academic writing, their research/academic career, more broadly, with the institution (academia). The closing session was moderated by Ann Nguyen (author and host of Critical Literary Consumption).

Yuezhou Yang - LSE Global China PhD Working Group Seminar

Organised three seminars for Winter 2022, with a keynote speaker at each. The speakers were:

Tue, 25 Oct - Dr. Xiaonan Wang, Assistant Professor at the City University of New York

Tue, 15 Nov - Dr. Hang Zhou, Postdoctoral Researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway

Tue, 29 Nov - Lukas Fiala, PhD candidate at Dept. of International Relation, LSE

2020/21

Katherine Ajibade - Lived Catholicism: New Questions and Untold Stories

A two-day conference featuring speakers from 22 institutions. It was co-hosted event, many attendees were from Durham University and the Centre for Catholic Studies. It provided an opportunity for an international cross-disciplinary encounter to promote the notion of lived Catholicism, both within the academy and beyond. The conference had approximately 300 people attend over the two days. The conference received interest from scholars and people in leadership positions within the Catholic church, with several Bishops from the UK and the Philippines attending. It provided a fantastic networking opportunity, allowing participants to connect with the leading scholars in this field.

Zuzana Dančíková - Intersections of Gender, Work/Family, and Social Policy: A Graduate/Early-Career Workshop

20 graduate and early career researchers were invited to work on issues relevant to the workshop. It was run with a co-organiser from Cambridge University. Participants were invited from academic institutions, though the event was open to participants from non-academic institutions and independent researchers.

2019/20

Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir - Religion vs ‘social’ science: Exploring the in/compatibility of faith and reason within social science disciplines

A workshop and panel for PhD students and early-career researchers from either LSE or other higher education institutions as well as researchers working in non-academic organisations. Panel speakers included:

Dr Manmit Bhambra (LSE Middle East Centre & LSE European Institute)

Dr Dominic Lash (University of Bristol Department of Film and Television)

Prof Aaron Rosen (King’s College London Department of Theology and Religious Studies)

Dr Suriyah Bi (Yale University Department of Anthropology)

Dr Bethany Sollereder (University of Oxford Faculty of Theology and Religion)

Julian Gopffarth - Memory and Populism: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Perspectives

A workshop where nine PhD students were invited to present their research in three separate panels. Three senior academics offered comment on their work and provided guidance for the next steps and publications. 

2018/19

Eleonora Maria Mazzoli - Connected Life 2019: “Data & Disorder”

A conference jointly organised by students at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Oxford Internet Institute. The event featured international speakers and participants from both the academic field and industry. It welcomed 82 speakers from 51 universities and research institutions across 19 countries.

Michela Sedovicova - PopFest 2019

PopFest is the annual population studies student conference, organised by postgraduate students. In 2019 the conference was held at LSE in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It focused on engaging population studies students from various disciplines such as sociology, demography, health, data science, anthropology, economy, international development and offering them a platform to present their research and become comfortable with the conference-like events. 

2017/18

Kara Blackmore - Understanding South Sudan: Questions of Knowledge and Representation

A workshop that aimed to address how researchers from Europe and South Sudan can conduct research that is respectful to South Sudanese people. It brought together 20 participants, ranging from doctoral students to early career researchers, for a productive workshop on the practicalities of working within conflict settings. 

Marta Lorimer - Graduate conference on ‘Populism: Left, Right and Center’

The aim of this conference was to provide PhD students with a space to discuss their research on the theme of ‘populism’ with other graduate students working in the field. They welcomed theoretical and empirical contributions from all disciplines. The conference featured speakers from a range of UK institutions.

Richard Stupart - Media and Politics: Alienation, engagement and resistance

A interdisciplinary symposium that tied together the fields of politics, media and cultural studies. It was geared towards PhD students in the early stages of their research. The emphasis was on thoughtful discussion with fellow PhD students, along with feedback from leading academics from LSE. The keynote speech was given by Bart Cammaerts (LSE).

Bernardo Wjuniski - Modern Revisions In Brazilian Economic History

The workshop brought together 20 young academics and final year PhD students from UK and abroad working on modern Brazilian economic history of the 19th and 20th century. Participants presented their research among their peers and received additional feedback from academics working on the topic.

Teo Zidaru-Barbulescu - (Mis)trust money debt

A one-day workshop on (mis)trust, money and indebtedness in interdisciplinary perspectives. The workshop aimed to explore the roles, qualities and affordances of mistrust within socioeconomic life, as well as create a space for dialogues across disciplinary boundaries and methodologies. Several different panels, featuring academics from a broad range of institutions, gave evidence that provided the workshop numerous anthropological, historical and legal perspectives.

 

 

Share