BUFI mainly funds PhD studentships and there are four main support models:
- Full awards — we normally fund one or two Kingsley Dunham Studentships every year. BUFI finances the student’s tuition fees and stipend. For this level of funding we expect the project to be very closely aligned to BGS Science Strategy. Funds to support fieldwork or analytical work are expected to be provided by the supporting BGS project or host university.
- NERC quota awards where BGS acts as a NERC CASE partner note BGS is not eligible for the NERC Industrial CASE scheme. Here we offer an additional stipend for the student in the region of £1500 per year plus funds to contribute towards student fieldwork, analytical costs and travel and subsistence whilst the student is at BGS. However, it is expected for the supporting project to contribute towards these and there is currently an upper limit to the award of £8500.
- Joint studentships scheme — BUFI can provide a grant of up to £35 000 towards the cost of a PhD studentship. The remainder can come from a variety of sources, but we do like to see a significant and balanced contribution from the host university.
- BGS generally receives a NERC quota award in its own right. Selection of topics and the student is handled by BUFI.
Other BUFI funding routes
We are also open to new initiatives that involve cross-council funding, such as the CASE Awards for New Academics scheme run by EPSRC and interacting with academics whose main source of funding is through ESRC as the socioeconomic impacts of our science are becoming increasingly more important.
Funding for publishing
BUFI supports publication and the promotion of science resulting from collaborative activity, be it peer reviewed publications, popular news articles, or conference attendance.
Students are strongly supported in their efforts, funding is made available upon application to sponsored students, and financial rewards have been made available for successfully early publication in peer-reviewed literature.
To date, BUFI collaborative research has proved extremely fruitful, and has an impressive publication record to ISI list.
We have a high success rate of completed PhDs theses.
Contact Dr Jon Naden for further information
British Geological Survey
Keyworth
Nottingham
NG12 5GG
