WINNERS

2025 Winners
2024 Winners

Rationale

Many PhD candidates writing their dissertations in International Studies use fieldwork data. However, due to various reasons (scholarship type, institutional budgetary cuts), they lack the finances for fieldwork travel. EISA Dissertation Fieldwork Support Grant aims to support this crucial part of PhD research through the provision of a grant in the form of funds aimed at covering travel and accommodation expenses.

25% of EISA members and PEC/EWIS attendees are PhD candidates. Apart from the Mobility Fund and Early Career Workshops at PEC, the EISA has also supported their academic work after the PhD through the Postdoctoral Bridge Grants. This grant scheme supporting dissertation fieldwork will add to our existing funding schemes to support early career researchers, especially those who face different forms of precarity and structural inequality and discrimination.

Scope and goals

The EISA DIssertation Fieldwork Support Grant will contribute up to 3,500 Euros for each of the 5 selected candidates. Applicants are required to prepare a preliminary budget with cost break-downs. The requested amount must be realistic, make good use of financial recources, and justified by the applicant in line with the specifics of the fieldwork (duration, travel from place of residence to place of fieldwork, living costs in the place of fieldwork, etc.). The EISA has the discretion to approve/disapprove a lower/higher amount than requested.

Grants are nonrenewable and dependent upon the number of applications, available funds and the existence of other sources of funding from the applicant. The amount given to each grantee will be a case-by-case analysis of living and travel costs, taking into account the time spent on fieldwork, the place of residence and the fieldwork destination. Each application must be accompanied by a declaration stating which – if any – types of alternative funding will be used to support the fieldwork and why the requested amount from EISA is needed.

The goal of this funding scheme is to support fieldwork-based research in International Studies or related subfields, as long as the main contribution of the thesis is situated within the former’s concepts, theories and/or debates.

Target Group

The award is designed to support EISA members enrolled in any PhD program in International Studies or related fields whose thesis research aims to contribute to advance knowledge in the broader field of IR.

Eligible applicants are EISA members enrolled in PhD programs whose memberships are active at the time of the application and throughout the period of the duration of the travel that lack the finances for fieldwork travel.

What can be supported

• • Costs relating to physical travel to/stay in and beyond the place of residence; for example, a return train/flight ticket, internal travels in the place of fieldwork as long as justified by the work plan, and accommodation costs.

What can not be supported

• • Remote fieldwork (online interviews, etc.)
  • Purchase of digital materials and access to digital platforms (e.g. artistic work, archival documents)
  • Compensation for participants involved in the fieldwork activities (interviews, focus groups…)
  • Costs whose direct beneficiary is not the applicant (translators, courses, meals…)
  • Hotels and accommodations with classification superior to 3 stars
  • Travel or health insurance

Application Process

Apply using the Application Form.
Applicants must submit:

• • a motivation letter (up to 2 pages, Times New Roman 12pt., margins of 3 cm each side and 1.5 space) briefly explaining their PhD project, work plan with clear description of tasks and places of travel and the need for the funds;
  • a short CV (up to 2 pages)
  • a declaration stating the existence or not of any other financial support and amount, as well as the need for the grant
  • a preliminary budget with a break-down of each expense item and explanation of the rationale for each cost. Amounts can be estimative, though these must be realistic, the elegibility for the use of funds is bounded to the verification of similar amounts requested per item. A table outlining each cost would be helpful.
  • Proof of PhD Status

Submit a proposed budget with breakdown of expenses and explanation of the rationale for each costs. Budget proposals must be feasible, justifiable and funds must be used in a rational way.

Funds will be released in two tranches, being the first one aimed at covering travel costs and part of the accommodation costs and the second corresponds to the remaining amount requested, following the submission of a mid-term mission report.

Selected candidates must submit a one-page midterm mission report stating the tasks that were completed, preliminary results and challenges/changes in the original plan 10 days prior to half of the period of the mission, alongside the proof of travel and of any other associated costs for the first period of the grant. The second tranche of the payment will be released only after the approval of the midterm report. A final mission report and the remaining documents related to theproof of travel and other costs must be submitted upon a month after the grantee’s return. Applicants commit to refund any amount whose usage was not duly justified and to refer to the EISA and the attribution of the fund in all outputs related with the field work.

If you have any questions about the scheme or the application form, please contact info@eisa-net.org.

Important dates