If you are carrying out research that would attract huge expenses that you cannot afford, you can apply for small research grants for students. Numerous organizations are offering small research grants to students and this article will reveal most of the authentic ones.
Moreover, your research should be authentic, relevant, and interesting to be able to secure small research grants for individuals.
Table of Contents
Top Research Grants for Students in 2022
What Is a Research Grant?
Research grants are resources given to a researcher for all expenses that would occur in the process of research. Research grants are made available by several organizations to help support research made by individuals, universities, and other groups that require a substantial amount of money.
Research can be carried out in different academic fields such as Literature, Medicine, and the environment, Psychology, Education, social science, sociology Humanities, Anthropology, Economics, History, Political science, Computer Science, Engineering, etc.
Research grants differ in amount depending on the type of research you are carrying out. It can be entirely new research or a continuation of already carried out research. Moreover, the organization, whether public or private, offering the grants may decide to sponsor the whole research or part of the research.
Below are the organizations that offer small research grants for Students in 2022.
The Kirkhouse Trust (KT)
- The kirkhouse trust is a charity organization in Scotland established to improve the productiveness of unique legume crops in Africa through the application of marker-assisted breeding.
- They assist scientists in some selected countries by offering research grants, laboratories, screen houses, and supplies to encourage them to carry out molecular breeding work for crop growth.
- They facilitate and improve research skills in countries where support for science is minimal.
- This grant is basically for scientists with plant breeding skills in legumes.
- They concentrate on cowpea in West Africa and common beans in East Africa.
- They support and train members of the research projects through the award of postgraduate scholarship in Africa and also fund visits to laboratories in Europe and the USA.
- The Kirkhouse Trust, since 2002 has been awarding research grants to universities and national agricultural institutions in selected countries in West Africa, East Africa, southern Africa, and India.
- Learn more about The Kirkhouse Trust grants for agriculture at https://www.kirkhousetrust.org/
African Independent Research Fellowships
- These fellowships are for skillful African early-career researchers with the potential of becoming leaders in their area.
- These fellowships encourage quality research that deals with global improvement challenges encountered by the Africans.
- They give excellent training, mentoring, and networking opportunities to early-career African researchers.
- They also award grants and fellowships for outstanding researchers internationally.
To be eligible for the grants and fellowships;
- You must be a national of a sub-Saharan African country.
- You must be a Ph.D. holder by the time you apply.
- You must be an early-career researcher with a minimum of two years of research background.
- You must have a formulated research proposal focusing on global areas stated in the program notes.
- However, the program offers an award of £150,000 to researchers per year.
- Learn more about these fellowships by clicking here.
The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS)
- TWAS is an academy that assists African countries falling behind in science and technology.
- Through the support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, TWAS offers grants to quality and relevant research projects in Agriculture, Biology, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, information computer technology, mathematics, medical sciences, and physics conducted in African countries by researchers in institutions that lack relevant research facilities.
- TWAS research grants to each research unit are worth a maximum of USD 67,700 and the grants are for 24 months.
- To be eligible for the grants, you must be a national of the selected countries and have a PhD and good research experience.
- Learn more about TWAS grants at https://twas.org/
African Researchers’ Small Grants Program
- This program is created to empower present and future generations of African researchers in research institutions or Universities in Africa whose interest is in the elimination of the Neglected Tropical Disease(NTD) from Africa.
- The grants are always given to researchers with interesting and competitive ideas to contribute to eradicating NTD in Africa.
- The grant is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and they are in two categories—the small grants for junior researchers and small grants for mid-career and senior researchers.
- The grant ranges from USD 10,000 – 30,000.
- To be eligible for the grant, you must be employed by or enrolled as a student in an academic, health, or research institution in Africa.
- Learn more about these grants programs at https://arntd.org
African Union Research Grants
- African union research grants are for talented early-career scientists striving to strengthen Africa’s science and innovation foundation.
- Through the program, 40 young and arising African talented early-career scientists, and their ideas are provided development opportunities and grants.
- Learn more about African Union research grants at https://africa-eu-partnership.org/en/search/node/Grants
Institut français de recherché en Afrique (IFRA Nigeria)
- IFRA-Nigeria is a public research institute under the French ministry of foreign affairs.
- It was established to improve research in the social sciences and the humanities, and it is operating from the University of Ibadan (Institute of African Studies).
- This institute seeks to facilitate research in the social sciences and promote combined work between scholars in France and West Africa.
- It subsidizes research programs and awards research grants to academics and scholars.
- INFRA-Nigeria is co-funded by the French ministry for foreign and European affairs and the French center for scientific research (CNRS).
- Learn more about INFRA-Nigeria at https://www.ifra-nigeria.org/
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
- CODESRIA focuses on social sciences research in Africa. It was founded in 1973 and is located in Dakar, Senegal.
- The program provides grants for researchers that conduct Social Science Research in Africa.
- It meets the basic needs of African researchers to encourage them to perform their fieldwork. It also provides bibliographies, textbooks, and journals to successful researchers.
- Learn more about CODESRIA at https://codesria.org/
The Small Research Grants on Education Program
- These research grants are to support education research projects that will lead to the improvement of education.
- The grant is worth $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. Applications for these grants are accepted three times a year.
- This program supports thorough, intellectual, and technically valid research that is relevant to education.
- It supports scholarship that creates new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.
- Moreover, this program funds proposals from several disciplinary and methodological aspects, both domestically and internationally from intellectuals at various stages in their careers.
- Learn more about these grants at https://www.spencer.org/grant_types/small-research-grant
The International Foundation for Science (IFS)
- This foundation provides Individual research grants to support young promising researchers in developing countries.
- It supports outstanding individual research and builds the talent of early-career scientists in the developing world.
- Applicants are encouraged to tackle research issues linked to sustainable management of biological and water resources and to generate solutions that are relevant to local contexts.
Bright Focus
- Bright Focus is a supporter of primary scientific investigations to better understand and find cures for Alzheimer’s disease, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma.
- They have awarded nearly $225 million to scientists seeking new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of their target diseases since its creation.
- These grants have funded more than 1,625 resourceful projects and approximately 5,363 scientists who have dedicated their careers to groundbreaking research.
- Their support enables promising researchers and skillful scientists at universities, hospitals, and medical centers worldwide to make notable discoveries about these diseases.
- Learn more at https://www.brightfocus.org/research