Funding for research and projects
Thanks to a generous legacy from Jean Guild, we have been able to offer small grants for projects which address the aims of the Club: “The study and support of all aspects of the history of Edinburgh, and the promotion and encouragement of interest in Edinburgh by means of lectures, visits, publications and appropriate activities for public benefit.”
In 2024/25, we ran a second funding round of Jean Guild Grants. This is supporting a small number of projects with grants of up to £3,500 and individual research grants of up to £500.
Who can apply?
Round 2 of the programme was open to:
- local history or heritage groups and organisations;
- schools and colleges; and
- independent researchers, postgraduate students and early career researchers.
We have sought projects with lasting benefits which can also help us raise the profile of the Club and attract new members.
What do we support?
Projects could involve:
- carrying out original research and sharing the findings;
- making records more accessible and promoting their use;
- pulling together existing research and knowledge to engage new audiences; and
- involving Edinburgh residents in history projects.
Tangible outputs could include:
We welcome content for the Old Edinburgh Club website or for the Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, our journal. We may invite grantees to contribute in some way to our lecture and visit programmes. We also seek to support publicity and dissemination.
Projects should prominently acknowledge the support of the Jean Guild Grants Programme and the Old Edinburgh Club.
Please note that we do not support research for works of fiction.
What costs will we cover?
Research costs may include:
- purchasing access to data sources (eg, subscriptions, licences)
- copying and digitisation of records
- database design and data entry
- travel costs for specific research purposes (eg, in visiting archives)
Dissemination costs may include:
- event organisation
- website design and content preparation
- publication costs
- preparation of exhibition materials
We do not fund equipment costs, salaries, subsistence, and administration costs.
How do I/ we apply?
How do we assess proposals?
We sought projects which offer some combination of:
- contributing to knowledge of the history of Edinburgh
- generating wider interest in the history of Edinburgh
- improving access to resources which enable future research, and
- promoting the Old Edinburgh Club.
The OEC Council of trustees assessed proposals on the quality of the application, intended benefits and outcomes and value for money.
We were prepared to make awards conditional on attracting other resources, or to suggest alternative funding sources which appear a better fit to the project proposed.
What is the deadline for applications
The deadline for applications for the second round of applications was Friday, 10 January 2025. We shall announce our awards at our lecture on 19 March 2025.
For each award we nominate an OEC trustee for liaison and seek to explore how we can support through publicity and dissemination.
What happens after an award?
We set up brief agreements for each project, setting out mutual responsibilities, including payment of grant and project milestones.