Opportunity profile: Growing agricultural research in the UK

How the Perry Foundation continues to cultivate applied biological agricultural science

Key points

• The Perry Foundation is primarily a funder of PhD studentships, but will consider applications for small awards in agricultural research of £5,000 on a case-by-case basis.
• The assessment process for the studentships puts equal weighting on the student and the project presented.
• In all its grants, the foundation focuses on applied biology in agriculture, basic science proposals are unlikely to win.
• The small awards are assessed informally and may cover small research projects or other activities so long as they benefit UK agriculture.

The Perry Foundation’s PhD studentships are worth up to £12,000 a year with the next round of applications closing on 31 October. Meanwhile, the small awards are open year-round without a deadline. The foundation is not very prescriptive for its small awards, as Gordon Bennett, company secretary of the Perry Foundation explains.