CASJ now offering grants for animal protection politics research programmes

February 1, 2023

The Centre for Animals and Social Justice (CASJ) is offering grants for UK-based applicants to pursue research in the field of the politics of animal protection. We welcome applications that combine academic rigour with topicality and potential social impact, with the ultimate aim of advancing animal protection. Applicants should note the necessity to disseminate their results outside academia (e.g. government, NGOs, media), including the production of a lay summary of their results on the CASJ website.

We are open to high-quality applications to advance the knowledge of the politics of animal protection, but we are particularly keen to support research in our priority sub-fields:

• institutional means of representing animal interests in political and policy-making systems
• measuring and accounting for animal welfare impacts in policy-making
• democratic innovations with the potential to improve animal welfare outcomes, e.g. deliberative democracy

Applications may be interdisciplinary, but with a primary focus in politics.

Applicants may apply under two grant programmes:

1. High Impact Grant (HIG): proposals on current hot topics in UK animal protection politics. Duration approximately 6 months. Maximum funding available £15,000
2. Research Project Grant (RPG): longer-term questions regarding animal protection politics and policy. The project should have a UK-focus, though comparative studies involving other countries/regions are welcomed. Duration up to 2 years. Maximum funding available £60,000

The applicant must be employed at a UK university/higher education establishment. The payments will be made to this host institution.

The call for applications remains open until the annual budget is exhausted. We anticipate the programme to operate annually.

Funding is available for:

• Applicant’s teaching replacement costs (the staff replacement should normally start at the most junior point of the lecturer scale of the institution concerned)
• Associated research costs (directly related to the research activity, not including PhD student funding)

Application process

There is a two-stage application process. Firstly, we invite Outline Applications. Successful outline applicants will be invited to submit a Detailed Application. We aim to make a decision on Outline Applications in one month. We anticipate making a decision on Detailed HIG Applications within approximately 3 months, and 4 months for Detailed RPG applications.

What to include in your Outline Application:

(Write your application as a Word document or compatible file format)

1. Applicant’s name and Institutional contact details
2. Specify whether you are applying for a High Impact Grant (HIG) or Research Project Grant (RPG)
3. Proposed start and finish dates (start date should be no less than four months from date of HIG applications, five months for RPG applications)
4. Working title and summary of proposed project (500 word maximum for HIG, 1000 word maximum for RPG). Your summary should be comprehensible to a person with broad knowledge of the field. It should give us an idea of how your proposal relates to the current state of knowledge in the field, hypotheses to be tested, objectives, significance, methods and proposed outputs.
5. Please attach your CV when you submit your application.

Outline applications should be sent to dan.lyons[at]casj.org.uk

Any questions? Email dan.lyons[at]casj.org.uk

Further Terms and Conditions can be viewed here.