Only Association members who have paid their fees for the current membership year (1 August – 31 July) by the application deadline of 1 February can apply for the Grant Scheme.

Members can apply for funding of up to £5000 for projects related to the care and management of Islamic collections and the study and publication of Islamic manuscripts. Please see Grant Scheme Description for more details of eligible project types. Please also see the Past Projects page for descriptions of previously funded projects.

Applications are encouraged for projects relating both to minimum best practice collection care for manuscript collections and for pioneering technological applications relating to manuscript studies.

The application form can be downloaded here. All applications should be supported by two referees who are personally acquainted with the applicant’s work and are holders of a relevant academic or professional position. Referees must not themselves be closely allied with the project. Recommendation letters should be typed on institutional letterhead and signed, and can be sent to the Association's offices by post as hard copies; by email as pdfs of the original, signed documents; or by fax. Recommendation letters should be sent to the Association by the referee, not by the applicant. If institutional approval or permission is required to carry out a project, a letter of permission must also be included in the application.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all the relevant documents arrive at the Association’s office in Cambridge by 18.00 GMT on 1 February in the year in which the grant is sought.

The deadline for applications is 1 February at 18.00 GMT in the year for which funding is sought. Applicants are encouraged to contact the Association well before that date with any queries about their project or application. Please do not send applications before 1 December and please do not submit incomplete applications. It is your responsibility to ensure that all forms, CVs, recommendation letters, permissions and any other documents necessary to support your application arrive at the Association’s offices by the deadline. Incomplete applications will not be considered. No exceptions will be made. Please see Application Timetable and Procedures for more information.

In the first instance, please familiarise yourself with the contents of this page and the rest of the Association’s website in order to ensure that the aims of your project are in accordance with the Association’s goals. Please refer to the Examples of Best Practice downloads to see examples of successful grant application forms and project reports. If you have any queries relating to the eligibility or feasibility of your project, our staff and selected expert members may be able to offer limited assistance. Please make sure you contact us with enough time to implement any suggestions in your application before the 1 February deadline. Association members offering advice do this on a voluntary basis and may not be able to give extensive attention to your queries.

Exceptionally, if an application has the potential to become a very successful Association-funded project but does not contain sufficient detail or would benefit from some modification, the board may provide feedback and request a resubmission.

For example, the board might suggest the use of a different model of equipment for a digitisation project, request the applicant to demonstrate sufficient conservation awareness for any project involving handling manuscripts, or request more detailed financial information. It is not necessary to resubmit the whole application: a clearly-worded letter in response to specific points raised will be deemed sufficient. The board also reserves the right to appoint to each successful application a mentor who will monitor progress, report back to the board, and be available to answer any queries or questions arising for the duration of the project.

If your project is awarded funding, you will be asked to sign and return a grant acceptance form detailing the terms of your award and your pledge to abide by them. This form will also require you to include your bank details, particularly your International Bank Account Number (IBAN), so that the Association can transfer your grant monies. If you do not have access to a bank account or you live in a country where it is difficult to make bank transfers, please investigate options for wiring funds, such as PayPal or Western Union.

Upon receipt of the completed and signed grant acceptance form, funds will be transferred to you as soon as possible, and the 12 month grant term will begin when grant funding is received by the applicant. Please be aware that it can take up to two months for this process to be completed, so if your project requires upfront funding before it can begin, you should plan carefully for the possibility of delay.

Due to EU sanctions it is not possible at present to send money to banks in Iran. Please contact the Association directly for advice if you are based in Iran and wish to apply for grant funding.

Projects should be scheduled for the year in which the grant is awarded, and should run for no longer than 12 months from the date that funds are transferred; however, if a project is unexpectedly delayed then the grant may be claimed up to two years after originally being awarded. Grant holders must keep the board fully informed of any necessary changes, unexpected problems or delays, or risk losing the final 20% of funding.

Three months after completing your project, or 15 months after the initial receipt of grant funding, you will be required to submit a detailed final project report, a summary of expenditure, and tangible evidence of project outcomes.

The project report should be 1,000 to 2,000 words long and written in a style suitable for inclusion on the Association’s website. It should include a thorough and detailed account of the development of the project over the year; detail which libraries, laboratories, or other sites were visited and which manuscripts were consulted; describe findings or innovations that came about as a result of the project; explain any difficulties or issues encountered and how they were resolved; and summarise the achievements of the project and its wider relevance to manuscript studies or the care and management of manuscript collections. Grant holders are strongly encouraged to illustrate the final report with photos, screenshots, diagrams, or other images. In submitting the report, the grant holder certifies that the copyright holders of all images used in it have given their permission for the Association to publish the images online.

The summary of expenditure should be a simple account of how the grant monies were spent (one A4 page). In particular, grant holders should indicate whether any costs were significantly different to what was originally anticipated, as this will aid the board in assessing the viability of future grant applications. Receipts and other proofs of expenditure are not required at present.

Tangible evidence of project outcomes could include copies of the following: published books, articles, or catalogues; reports or surveys; full-resolution digital images; and web resources such as online exhibitions, image galleries, or catalogues. Where the nature of the project is such that no tangible outcome is produced, the grant recipient must pay particular attention to ensuring that his or her report contains extensive evidence of the project’s successful realisation or implementation, such as photographs, event descriptions, event feedback, or publicity.

Any print or online publication of research which is the outcome of a project funded by the Association must include the Association’s sponsorship logo on the title page or impressum, and should include a written acknowledgement of the Association's support. A standard disclaimer text must also be included on any print or web publication supported by Association funding. Please contact grants@islamicmanuscript.org to request high-resolution sponsorship logo files as well as the wording of the disclaimer.

At least one hard copy of any published book, catalogue, or leaflet must be sent to the Association's office in Cambridge for inclusion in its library. This must be received before the project can be considered complete. Confidentiality will be fully respected in the case of any as yet unpublished research, and the Association reserves the right of first refusal to publish articles or other research resulting from any Association-supported project in the peer-reviewed and indexed Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, on the Association’s website, or on any other Association-related platform for the dissemination of scholarship.

The final report and financial summary constitute the official statement of the project’s achievement. They will be assessed by the Association’s board of directors following their submission, and when the board agrees that the project has been completed according to the stated aims of the application, the final 20% of funding will be transferred to the grant holder.

If the project has not been completed, or further information is required in order to assess whether the project is complete, the Association will provide feedback and ask the grant holder to resubmit their final report within a specific period of time.

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