British Council Grant to Support Research in Under-Resourced Areas

We are delighted to announce that the British Council has awarded TIRF a Research Grant of £ 15,000 (fifteen thousand pounds) to the 2014 TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grants program. The TIRF-British Council grants are intended to support candidates at universities in resource-poor environments (all countries on the OECD DAC list of developing countries). These funds will also support candidates in other regions whose work has the potential for making a positive impact in developing countries.

John Knagg, Head of Research and Consultancy for English with the British Council and the British Council’s representative to the TIRF Board of Trustees, announced the partnership earlier this week. John said, “We here at the British Council are delighted to support TIRF’s Doctoral Dissertation Grants program. We are particularly interested in funding studies that have clear implications for policymakers and others in positions to make decisions involving English language education practices.”

The research priority topics for the TIRF-British Council grants are the same as those advertised earlier in the publicity on TIRF’s DDG program: (1) Bilingualism and Plurilingualism in Business, Industry, and the Professions, (2) Language Assessment, (3) Optimal Uses of Technology in the Delivery of English Language Instruction, (4) Language Teacher Education, (5) Students’ Age and Effective English Language Education in Schools, and (6) Language Policy and Planning. To read about these topics, please click here.

News of this grant was welcomed by TIRF Treasurer, Donna Christian. “This wonderful grant from the British Council comes at a time when TIRF is seeking to expand global participation in its programs. We are very excited about being able to give particular consideration to applicants from areas of the world that have not been well-represented among our awardees.”

To be eligible for a Doctoral Dissertation Grant, an applicant must be clearly advanced to doctoral candidacy (dissertation stage) in accordance with the requirements of his/her institution. In other words, the candidate will have completed any coursework and/or examinations deemed necessary by his/her university and will have had his/her research plan approved by a faculty committee. This criterion is absolutely necessary and must be confirmed by the doctoral candidate’s research supervisor.

Questions about eligibility to submit a proposal should be addressed to info@tirfonline.org as soon as possible. The deadline for DDG applications for this year’s competition is May 16, 2014. The call for proposals can be found by clicking here.