Grants & Prizes
BSHS
About our Grants & Prizes
The BSHS supports the history of science community through a range of prizes and grants, from book and article prizes to funding for travel, research, and events. Our schemes also aim to encourage collaboration across different knowledge cultures, including academia, museums, and related heritage and cultural sectors. Explore our current prizes and grants below.
Please note that grant income is usually treated as taxable income. It is your responsibility, as the recipient, to make any necessary declarations to HMRC or the relevant authorities
News
Grants & Prize News
- All Post
- Prizes & Grants
News The BSHS Singer Prize 2026 – Call for Contributions The British Society for the History of Science is delighted...
News The BSHS Pickstone Prize 2026 – call for nominations Nominations are now open for the BSHS Pickstone Prize, awarded every...
The BSHS is very pleased to announce a competition for up to 3 bursaries of £4,000 each to support students taking a Master’s degree in the history of science, technology or medicine. This round of awards will be available to those who have been accepted on a Master’s programme.
- Applicants must have a confirmed place on a Master’s programme in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland
- Those studying for research-based Master’s degrees are eligible to apply, but not PhD students nominally registered for MPhil (or similar) provisionally pending upgrade to PhD registration.
- There is no nationality requirement for applicants. There is no age limit
- Non-members of the Society are welcome to apply but successful applicants will be asked to join the society
- By applying for a grant you are giving us permission, should you be successful, to publish your name in our magazine, Viewpoint and any of our other publications
- The BSHS must be acknowledged (and our logo shown) in any presentations and the student’s final thesis
- All recipients will be required to submit an article to Viewpoint within six months of completing the course
- Please note that grant income is usually treated as taxable income. It is your responsibility, as the recipient, to make any necessary declarations to HMRC or the relevant authorities.
Applications should be made using the form provided (see below), and should include a financial statement indicating what other funding has been sought or received. Those who have been given full studentships from other funding sources will not be eligible for these bursaries. The applicant should ask one referee to send their supporting statements using the form below. Deadline: 15th May of the relevant year.
Applications will be considered by members of the Society’s Grants Committee, and other experts as appropriate. No interviews will be held. Applicants will be notified by the end of July. Details of successful applicants may be published in the Society’s newsletter Viewpoint where appropriate.
In addition to the bursary, the successful applicants will receive a year’s free membership of the BSHS and free registration at the BSHS postgraduate conference. Grants will be paid by bank transfer at the start of the agreed award period. Grants not taken up within six months will be cancelled. Bursary recipients must notify the Society if their situation changes; a portion of the bursary may be reclaimed if the course is not completed. Bursary recipients must submit a brief report at the end of their award period. They should acknowledge the support of the Society in any publications or conference presentations which may arise from their work for the Master’s degree.
BSHS Engagement Fellowships scheme is run by our Outreach and Engagement Committee and supports small and local museums, archives, galleries and libraries whose collections connect to themes in the history of science, technology, engineering and medicine. This scheme will fund the placement of Master’s or PhD students with heritage organisations and museums for the equivalent of a month’s work (timescales can be arranged between the partner museum and student) as an Engagement Fellow and contribute £1000 towards the costs of public engagement outputs related to the research undertaken. Examples could include:
- Updating displays and content
- Blog posts
- Museum trails
- Informal learning sheets
- Events for schools, families or adults
The scheme supports the ambitions of museums and archives to deliver engaging histories and stories to their visitors. This scheme requires the heritage partner to provide training and mentorship for the appointed student during the placement. The student will develop valuable skills and experiences while producing outputs of high research quality.
The scheme is open to museums and heritage organisations based in the UK.
The Butler-Eyles Fund provides support for students or independent scholars attending conferences organised or sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science. It makes grants (up to £75) towards travel costs, where those costs would not be covered by another institution or funding body. It does not make grants towards accommodation costs, as subsidies for accommodation are already built into the BSHS conference rates.
Francis H.C. Butler and Joan and Victor Eyles were founding members of the British Society for the History of Science in 1947. They all served on Council at various stages in the 1950s and 1960s, and F.H.C. Butler was the first secretary of the Society. The Butler-Eyles Fund derives from their bequests, and subsequent donations by members of the Society.
- Applicants must be currently registered for a postgraduate degree or be independent scholars.
- Applicants must be members of the Society.
- Preference will be given to those who are delivering papers at the conference
- Applicants should make their best effort to travel in the most economical way within reason (booking trains well in advance, for example)
- Applicants should note that the Society is committed to reducing its environmental impact in line with its Climate Policy and, therefore, will not fund air travel
- Successful applicants must acknowledge the support of the Society in presentations given at the conference (if applicable)
- Please note that grant income is usually treated as taxable income. It is your responsibility, as the recipient, to make any necessary declarations to HMRC or the relevant authorities.
Applications will be considered by the Grants Committee, and other experts as appropriate. No interviews will be held. The Society may offer an amount less than that applied for. Details of successful applicants may be published in the Society’s magazine Viewpoint where appropriate. No correspondence will be entered into except under exceptional circumstances.
Joan and Victor Eyles, the former from a holiday snap (1984), the latter some sort of commemorative pamphlet (1978). Credit: James Bothwell.
Become a Member
Join the BSHS, gain access to our publications, events and grants and help us support the history of science.
The BSHS Singer Prize is awarded every two years to the writer of an essay outstanding in research, novelty and expression, based on original research into any aspect of the history of science, technology or medicine. The prize is intended for recent entrants into the profession. Candidates must be registered for a postgraduate degree or have been awarded such in the five years prior to the closing date. All nationalities are welcome.
Essays must not exceed 8,000 words and should be submitted in English. They should adhere to BJHS guidance to authors in all respects. The prize may be awarded to the writer of one outstanding essay, or may be awarded to two or more entrants. Publication in the British Journal for the History of Science will be at the discretion of the Editor. Essays under consideration elsewhere or in press are not eligible.
To receive notification of the entry round for the next Singer Prize please sign up http://eepurl.com/g3c4kv
Previous Winners of the BSHS Singer Prize
- 2020: Joint award to Alex Aylward (Leeds) for ‘The best argument for the socialist state which I have yet seen’: R. A. Fisher, eugenics, and the campaign for family allowances in interwar Britain, and Lea Beiermann (Maastricht) for ‘A method for safe transmission’: the microscope slides of the American Postal Microscopical Club.
- 2018: Pierre Verschueren (Collège de France), ‘“Great things are done when (Wo)Men & Mountains meet”: The Summer School for Theoretical Physics at Les Houches (1950s-1960s), or How Girl Scouts, the Corps des Mines and NATO helped rebuild French physics’. Runner-up: Matthew Holmes (University of Leeds) for ‘Fungi and Houseflies: The Septic Fringe and the Emergence of Edwardian Biotechnology’.
- 2016: Kit Heintzman (Harvard University) for “A cabinet of the ordinary: Revolutionizing veterinary education, 1766-1795”.
- 2014: Joint Award to Jenny Bulstrode (Cambridge) for “The Industrial Archaeology of Deep Time” and Sarah Swenson (Oxford) for “’Morals can not be drawn from facts but guidance may be’: The early life of W.D. Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness.” Michael Barany (Princeton) was given a Special Commendation for “Integration by Parts: Wordplay, Metaphor, and the Creation of an Intercontinental Mathematical Theory in the Early Cold War.”
- 2012: Iain Watts (Princeton University) for ‘”We want no authors”: William Nicholson and the contested role of the scientific journal in Britain, 1797-1813. The prize was given to Iain in person at the ICHSTM congress in Manchester in July 2013.
- 2010: Don Leggett (University of Kent) for “Replication and replacing: comparative contexts of naval science, 1868-1903”. Special Commendations were awarded to: Jenny Bangham, University of Cambridge for ‘The Rhesus controversy: scientific notations, paper tools and their articulation’; Michael Barany, Princeton University for ’Savage numbers: counting, race and the evolution of civilization in Victorian prehistory’; Susannah Gibson, University of Cambridge for’ Newtonian vegetables and perceptive plants’
- 2008: Melissa Smith (CHSTM, University of Manchester) for “Architects of Armageddon: Scientific advisers and civil defence in Britain, 1945-68”. The Prize was presented at the Society’s Annual Conference at the University of Leicester in July 2009.
- 2006: In the absence of a clearly outstanding essay, the Singer Prize was not awarded in this year. Please note that the decision not to award the Prize rests entirely with the judges, and is final.
- 2004: Claire Brock (now at the University of Leicester) for “The Public Worth of Mary Somerville.” Special Commendations were awarded to Néstor Herran (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), for “Spreading Nucleonics: the Isotope School at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, 1951-1967” and Prakash Kumar (Yale University) for “Improving Indigo: the Dynamics of Science at the Colonial and Imperial Laboratories, 1898-1913.”
- 2002: Simone Turchetti (University of Manchester), ‘Atomic secrets and government lies: nuclear science, politics and security in the Pontecorvo case’. Special commendations: Christopher Chilvers (University of Oxford) ‘The dilemmas of seditious men: the Crowther-Hessen correspondence in the 1930s’; Rebekah Higgitt, (Imperial College London), ‘”Newton dispossede!”: the British response to the Pascal forgeries of 1867’
- 2000: James Sumner (University of Leeds), ‘John Richardson, saccharometry and the pounds-per-barrel extract: the construction of a quantity’
- 1998: Gregory Radick (University of Cambridge), ‘Morgan’s Canon, Garnerís Phonograph, and the Evolutionary Origins of Language and Reason’
- 1996: Frances Dawbarn (University of Lancaster), ‘Patronage and Power: the College of Physicians and the Jacobean court’
- 1994: Joint Award. David Wright, ‘John Fryer and the Shanghai Polytechnic: making space for science in nineteenth-century China’; Paul Lucier (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), ‘Court and Controversy: patenting science in the nineteenth century’
- 1992: Jon Agar (University of Kent at Canterbury), ‘Making a Meal of a Big Dish: the construction of the Jodrell Bank Mark 1 radio telescope as a stable edifice, 1946-57’
- 1990: Joint Award. Jon Topham (University of Cambridge), ‘Science and Popular Education in the 1830s: the role of the Bridgewater Treatises‘; Mark Harrison (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London), ‘Tropical Medicine in Nineteenth-Century India’; Special Commendation: Ben Marsden (University of Kent at Canterbury), ‘Engineering science in Glasgow: economy, efficiency and measurement as prime movers in the differentiation of an academic discipline’; Special Commendation: John F. Mcdiarmid Clark (University of St Andrews): ‘Eleanor Ormerod (1828–1901) as an economic entomologist: ‘pioneer of purity even more than of Paris Green’
- 1988: Joint Award. Graeme Gooday, University of Kent; Michael Ben-Chaim, University of Cambridge
- 1986: First Prize: Michael Shortland; Second Prize Andrew Warwick; Commendation: Steve Sturdy
- 1984: No Award
- 1982: Joint Award. Simon Schaffer; Mari Williams
- 1980: M Ridley
### Description Small Conference Grant
The Society has decided to make funds available to increase access to its Annual Conference. It appreciates that delegates with responsibilities as carers often find it difficult to make alternative arrangements for the duration of the conference. The Society is therefore offering a limited number of grants (up to £100) towards the cost of delegate’s care arrangements during the BSHS Annual Conference.
- Applicants must be members of the Society
- Preference will be given to those who are delivering papers at the conference
- The grant may be used to cover the cost of care either at the conference location or in the applicant’s home location
- Costs should be realistic and as reasonable as possible
- Please note that grant income is usually treated as taxable income. It is your responsibility, as the recipient, to make any necessary declarations to HMRC or the relevant authorities.
The Society realises that, at the time of application, delegates may not be able to state with certainty the alternative care arrangements they will make. Thus, the application form asks only for an indication of intended plans and likely costs. However, successful applicants will need to submit the claim form, and this does request details of the actual arrangements. This information will be useful to the Society in improving our understanding of the access issues facing our members, and suggesting what further assistance the Society could offer.
The deadline shall be the same as the registration deadline for the annual conference, unless otherwise advertised.
Applications will be considered by the Treasurer, and other experts as appropriate. No interviews will be held. The Society may offer an amount less than that applied for. No correspondence will be entered into except under exceptional circumstances.
Note: The Society understands that some delegates or others involved in a conference may require the use of local childcare facilities close to the conference venue. Details of childcare providers can be obtained by telephoning Childcare Link on 0800 096 0296, alternatively by accessing www.childcarelink.gov.uk. Whilst the Society understand that the Child Information Service and Childcare Link are a reliable source for childcare information, the Society does not accept responsibility and liability from using either of these services.
A proportion of the BSHS grants fund will be set aside each year for small grants (from £50 to £500) for specific research purposes, such as archival visits, research trips, photography or microfilming, additional care costs or temporary research assistance costs for remote access to research archives. Grants are not available for costs associated with publication. Applications are particularly welcomed from those early in their research careers. Preference is given to research projects which have clear, independent outcomes.
Funding will be allocated twice a year, with applications to be received by 30 September or 31 March each year. Decisions will normally be made within a month of the deadline.
- Applicants must be members of the Society
- Applicants are normally expected to hold a PhD, or to have completed at least one year’s research towards a PhD. There is no age limit
- Preference is given to applicants who are within ten years of starting their PhD
- Applications for funding must be made in advance; grants may not be used to cover expenditure that has already been incurred
- Grants are awarded only to individuals; individuals may make only one application per year; re-applications may not be made for the same project
- Conference expenses are not available under this scheme. Student members of the Society should apply to the Butler-Eyles Fund for conference travel expenses
- Any care costs included in your application are to be in addition to your normal arrangements
- The BSHS is committed to lowering its carbon emissions and encourages applicants to consider seeking research assistance to consult archives remotely
- Applicants should make their best effort to travel in the most economical way within reason (booking trains and flights well in advance, for example)
- All recipients will be invited to submit an article to Viewpoint within six months of completing the course.
- Sponsorship for air travel will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and applicants may be asked to specify reasons why they have chosen the option to fly.
- Please note that grant income is usually treated as taxable income. It is your responsibility, as the recipient, to make any necessary declarations to HMRC or the relevant authorities.
Applications should be made on the form below, and should include a financial statement indicating why the funds are being sought. One referee should be asked to send a supporting statement (in the case of doctoral candidates, the referee should be the research supervisor). All materials should be sent by the 30 September and 31 March of each year.
Applications will be considered by members of the Society’s Grants Committee, and other experts as appropriate. No interviews will be held. The Society may offer an amount less than that applied for. Details of successful applicants may be published in the Society’s magazine Viewpoint where appropriate. No correspondence will be entered into except under exceptional circumstances.
Grants will be paid by bank transfer at the start of the agreed award period. Grants not taken up within six months will be cancelled. Successful applicants must submit a financial statement, and an informal 250-word report for publication in Viewpoint at the end of their award period (usually 12 months); and must acknowledge the support of the Society in any publications or conference presentations relating to the funded research.
Undergraduate Dissertation Archive Prize
Status: Paused
Are you an undergraduate student writing a dissertation on a topic in the history of science, technology and medicine? Do you need to visit an archive as part of your research? If so, then why not apply for one of our OEC archive grants?
These awards, of up to £200, are specifically designed to cover travel, or similar costs, associated with archival visits. Please send a completed application form and address all enquiries to office@bshs.org.uk. Grant recipients will be invited to submit an article about the resulting archival work in the BSHS magazine, Viewpoint. Sponsorship for air travel will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and applicants may be asked to specify reasons why they have chosen the option to fly.