Researchers in Modern Languages can be supported by schemes operated by the major funders in the Arts and Humanites:
- the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC);
- the Leverhulme Trust;
- the British Academy;
- the Modern Humanities Research Association.
Other funders are attached to the embassies or cultural institutes of countries where the language of study is spoken and will support either individual researchers or small projects, such as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Japan Society of the UK, and Austrian Cultural Forum (ACF).
The British Association for Chinese Studies produced a report in 2019 that gives an overview of funding available to students and researchers in the field.
Postgraduate Funding
Funding to undertake postgraduate research generally comes from institution-specific grants or from one of the AHRC or the ESRC. These research councils are split into regional Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTP), consortia of universities that together offer access to training and resources (varying from DTP to DTP). For a list of AHRC DTPs click here, and for a list of ESRC DTPs click here.
The AHRC also offers PhD funding through Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships, through which students are supervised jointly by a university and a non-HEI partner such as a museum, library, archive, or other public body.
Postgraduate students should investigate small awards for foreign travel and the like made by their respective subject associations as well as the Institute for Modern Languages Research. The British Spanish Society offers sometimes generous funding for PhD projects in its domain, as does the Anglo-Austrian Society and the James Pantyfedwen Trust. PhD projects in the Medical Humanities with a Modern Languages dimension can be funded by the Wellcome Trust.