2025 Early Career Grants Programme - Terms and Conditions

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. 

Application form 

Applications to the 2025 Grants Programme must be entered on RSTMH’s grants platform Benefactor. Applications submitted outside of this platform will not be considered.  

Guidance on how to use Benefactor can be found here.  

Applications can be started and then saved, so that the applicant can complete it over a period of time. Once an application is submitted on Benefactor, it cannot be amended. 

If the applicant needs to amend something on their application after submission, they will need to withdraw their application and submit a new one before the deadline.  

Applications must be submitted in English, and must be complete, with all mandatory questions answered, in order to be considered.  

Guidance on ‘Early Career’ eligibility 

RSTMH would like to ensure as many early career researchers and professionals can apply for an Early Career Grant as possible and encourage people from a range of disciplines and sectors to apply.  

To ensure equity and fairness of opportunity, RSTMH does not use a definition focused on specific roles, qualifications held, or age – instead, it chooses to supply guidance around the profile of an applicant that may be suitable for an Early Career Grant.  

Applicants should not have received research funding of £5,000 or more in their own name before. The applicant’s supervisor must verify this as part of the reference and the application process.  

Applicants should be able to:  

• Carry out research under supervision. 
• Have the ambition and discipline to develop knowledge of research methodologies. 
• Have demonstrated a good understanding of a field of study. 
• Demonstrate the ability to produce data under supervision. 
• Use critical analysis, evaluation and be able to synthesise new and complex ideas.  
• Competently explain the outcome of their research and value thereof to colleagues. 

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.  

Plagiarism and Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

All work submitted as part of the application for the grant must be the applicant’s own original work, written in their own words. The concept, proposal, and submitted reporting must incorporate the applicant’s own ideas and judgements. Plagiarism – which here refers to the presentation of another person's thoughts, words or work as though they were the applicant’s own – is not permitted and all work must be referenced using the referencing system detailed in the application form.  

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following: 

• Word for word (verbatim) copying or paraphrasing of another’s work without appropriate referencing.  
• Self-plagiarism – unacknowledged re-use of the applicant’s own published or submitted work. 
• Unacknowledged quotations.  
• Collusion – when two or more applicants collaborate in the preparation and the production of work, which is submitted by one or more of the applicants as their own work.  
• Outsourcing – when the applicant uses a proposal writing business or outsources all or part of their project to a third party. This includes outsourcing all or part of the application to the project supervisor.  
• AI – used strategically, AI can support applicants’ learning and proposal writing. However, the copying directly of written or budget materials directly from AI is not permitted.  

The use of templates or examples (including those available on the RSTMH website) to advise and structure the proposal or budget is allowed, but the work must be rigorously adjusted to the specific project. 

If RSTMH has any concern regarding potential plagiarism in an application, they will ask the applicant to demonstrate and evidence how they have produced their work and estimated costings.  

Applications found to be non-compliant with the above stipulations will be declined. 

If an applicant has any questions about a potential plagiarism issue, please contact greta [dot] holmes [at] rstmh [dot] org for clarification.  

Supporting references 

The application must be supported by two referees, one of which should be a senior member of the employing or affiliated organisation. The other should be the applicant’s direct supervisor for the duration of this project. References must be on headed paper, complete and uploaded with the application before the deadline. Applications without submitted references from both referees will be deemed incomplete and therefore declined. The contact details provided for referees should be an institutional email address and not a personal email address.  

The supervisor should assess and clearly comment on:  

• The feasibility of achieving the project’s aims with the resources defined in the application.  
• The relevance of the project to the subject area of research.  
• The reasonableness of the budget, in total and for each budget area.  
• The benefit of the project to the wider community.  
• The mentorship and support made available to the applicant.  
• Verify that, to the best of their knowledge, the proposal is the applicant's own original work.  
• Verify that, to the best of their knowledge, the applicant meets the guidance for being early in their career. 

The senior member from the employing or affiliated organisation should comment on:   

• The training and career development opportunities available to the applicant.  
• The availability and use of relevant institutional resources.   
• The mentorship and career support available to the applicant. 

More information on the reference letters can be found here. 

Feedback  

Unfortunately, due to the volume of applications received, RSTMH is not able to provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.  

Each year, RSTMH provides general feedback to all unsuccessful applicants, on common reasons for application rejections, alongside advice and recommendations for how to improve the chance of success in a future application. This feedback is publicly available on the RSTMH website.  

Requirements of awardees 

Grants can only be used for the exact activities described in the application, as that is the basis on which the grant has been awarded. Any changes to the proposed activities after payment of the award must be approved by RSTMH. Grants would be requested to be refunded if activities are changed without approval.  

Grants awarded cannot be transferred to other individuals or institutions. Awardees must inform RSTMH if their personal or professional circumstances change throughout the application and award process.  

If the research involved animals, awardees must ensure they abide by the local laws. Awardees should comply with all local regulations and legislation while carrying out their projects.  

Awardees should submit quarterly progress reports to RSTMH. Awardees will be notified of deadlines once their project has begun. If reports are not received, RSTMH may contact their supervisor.   

Awardees must tell RSTMH immediately if there is a change to the scope of the Grant activities, or if there are any factors that may adversely affect the Grant activities or compliance with the Terms and Conditions. This includes suspicion of or actual fraud, corruption or financial impropriety. Any changes to the project made after selection must be approved before the project starts by the Grants and Awards Committee and will only be approved in exceptional cases. 

Projects carried out are completely the responsibility of the applicant, and RSTMH is not responsible for any direct or indirect negative consequences.  

Data sharing 

When an application is submitted, the applicant consents to: 

• Their details being shared with partners, suppliers and funding partners.  
• Their application being used to collate anonymised data. 
• Being signed up the RSTMH non-member newsletter, so that they can be kept up to date with information about the grants programme. 

This consent is necessary to progress their application, and to assign awardees to funders.  

Further information on RSTMH’s privacy policy can be found here: https://www.rstmh.org/disclaimer-privacy

If applicants would like to be removed from the RSTMH newsletter mailing list, they should email alice [dot] sharman [at] rstmh [dot] org.  

Payment 

Awardees must hold a personal bank account to receive the award payment. RSTMH can only pay awards to organisations in exceptional circumstances – for example, if the awardee’s institution prohibits the awardee from receiving funding to a personal account.  

Unfortunately, RSTMH is unable to pay out awards in any currency other than GBP. 

The recipient bank must therefore be able to accept GBP, and if necessary, convert this into the local currency of the awardee’s bank account.  

There may be separate requirements and/or conditions if awarded by one of RSTMH’s partners. These will be clarified in the confirmation of award form.  

Awardees must keep receipts or other proofs of payment for all items of spend relating to the Grant for seven years. 

Awardees are responsible for any expenditure on the Grant activities which exceeds the amount of the Grant.  

If bank charges are applied by the recipient’s bank account, these cannot be reimbursed by RSTMH.  

Awardees must repay the award funds to RSTMH if:  

• Any part of the Grant that has not been spent when the Grant activities have been completed;  
• Any part of the Grant used in breach of the Terms and Conditions. 

Reporting and dissemination 

Awardees are required to submit quarterly progress reports via the grants platform Benefactor. Deadlines will be confirmed once the awardee’s project has commenced. 
 
On completion of the project, a report must be submitted to RSTMH through the Benefactor portal within 3 months, for formal review by the Grants and Awards Committee. This is scheduled for March 2027. This may also be used for potential promotion by RSTMH.  

The project report form (available to successful awardees on the grants platform Benefactor) will ask for information on the following areas:  

• Results and outcomes of the project, including any published or presented work. 
• Future implications of research findings. 
• The impact of the project on the awardee’s career, skills and networks. 
• Any images, illustrations and graphs that help to illustrate the awardee’s research and outcomes. 
• The budget expenditure against the awardee’s project budget, with all receipts and proofs of payment for audit purposes.  
• The awardee’s current role and profile photo. 

Failure to submit reports within the specified timeframes may result in RSTMH asking for a refund. In such cases, future applications for funding will not be considered.  

The support of RSTMH and the awardee’s funder, if relevant, must be acknowledged in all written publications and oral presentations arising from the project. The logo of RSTMH and the funder will be supplied for this purpose, and other materials can be provided on request.  

For transparency, RSTMH and the awardee’s funder, if relevant, will announce its Early Career Grant recipients on its website, social media channels and through its communications. If applicants have any concerns about this, they should contact the RSTMH team.  

As detailed, awarded grants cannot be used to finance publishing costs for successful awardees. 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. If applicants or awardees have any questions on this, they should contact thomas [dot] pinfield [at] rstmh [dot] org.  

Withdrawal of Early Career Grants 

RSTMH reserves the right at any time and without notice to withdraw an Early Career Grant, either in full or in part, if the awardee fails materially to comply with these conditions.  

Modification or variation of conditions 

RSTMH reserves the right to modify, add to, or vary these conditions, as it sees fit. It will give prior notice to the awardees of any changes. RSTMH will seek to ensure that the awardee is not disadvantaged by such changes.  

By applying for an RSTMH Early Career Grant, the applicant is agreeing to share the details of their application with RSTMH, including its team and volunteers, its selected suppliers and funding partners and assessors for the purpose of assessing and managing the applicant’s application, and if an application is successful, of supporting the awardee’s research.  

For transparency, RSTMH will use anonymised data from applications for marketing purposes to demonstrate the number, geographical spread, gender mix, disease and sector representation. By applying for an Early Career Grant, the applicant is agreeing to these terms and conditions. 

The decision of the Grants and Awards Committee is final.  

If there are any questions about these Terms and Conditions, please email greta [dot] holmes [at] rstmh [dot] org.