RESEARCH GRANTS SCHEME
The SLSA Research Grants Scheme continues to attract applications from across the breadth of socio-legal studies. Our aim is to support work for which other funding sources are not available and to encourage socio-legal research initiatives in a practical way. In total the SLSA Board has awarded over £200,000 in support of a wide variety of socio-legal research projects under this scheme.
This scheme is now closed. It will reopen in summer 2026.
SCHEME GUIDANCE
Under this scheme, individual awards are up to a maximum of £4000.
Note: a proportion of this funding pot is ring-fenced for those in precarious employment.
Applicants to the scheme must be current members in good standing of the SLSA, wherever they live, on 31 October in the year of the application. You can check your membership status here.
Please download and read the guidance carefully before submitting your application.
You must use the online form for your grant application. Note: If you need the guidance or application form in an alternative, accessible format, please contact the SLSA Administrator.
Applicants will be advised of the success or otherwise of their applications in early February each year.
You are advised to look at the titles, reports and summaries from past grantholders published in previous issues of the Socio-Legal Newsletter to help you decide whether your project is appropriate for a grant.
Applying for a grant: 'dos' and 'don'ts'
Advice about applying for our funding schemes has appeared in past issues of the the Socio-Legal Newsletter. The guidance was updated in June 2024 by Rebecca Moosavian and Marie Selwood.
See below for the full list of past grantholders and project titles.
Grants Committee
The Committee Chair is Dr Richard Craven, University of Sheffield. For queries about this scheme: please email admin@slsa.ac.uk.
ROLL OF HONOUR
2026
‘Gender stereotypes and vulnerabilities: Russian male asylum seekers fleeing conscription’
Kathrin Hamenstaedt, University of Birmingham
£1050
Legal futures at the Horniman Museum and Gardens
Elen Stokes, University of Bristol
£3605
‘Beyond measure: exploring the rise in drug testing’
Simon Flacks, University of Sussex
£4000
‘Human lawyering: law student and legal professionals’ views on the role of personal development modules in the age of GenAI’
Lydia Bleasdale, University of Leeds
£1300
‘Forced displacement, humanitarian response and organised crime in Mexico during the second Trump administration: a socio-legal analysis of the impact of 2025 US legal and policy changes and funding cuts’
Victorie Knox, School of Advanced Study, University of London
£3970
‘Gentle law: quiet interventions in the legal mobilities of everyday life’
Jess Connolly-Smith, Lincoln University
£2184
‘Grateful or trapped? Female food delivery platform workers’ experiences of job satisfaction in China and how these experiences are shaped by labour law’
Ou Lin, Lancaster University
£2866
‘Alegal intimacies and masculinity: legal consciousness of British Muslim men in Islamic-only marriages’
Simran Kalra, University of Leicester
£3500
‘Silences, silencing, and stickiness of law: a case of (re)coding gender’
Bhumika Billa, University of Cambridge
£3475
Legal and social frames of Sámi experiences: narrative construction of discrimination in truth and reconciliation commission in Finland
Anna Katila, City University of London
£2980