James Rennie Bequest

The Bequest takes the form of a travel prize to be awarded to students who wish to travel to places outside the UK in connection with extracurricular studies in biology. 

Applicants must be matriculated undergraduate or postgraduate students of the University of Edinburgh in the College of Science and Engineering and studying for a degree in the biological sciences (including ecological sciences) at the time of travel. 

Awards are competitive and made at the discretion of the Committee. The money must be used to support travel to a work experience placement, fieldwork, or a conference at which the applicant is presenting a paper or poster.

The Committee would like to draw your attention to the following:

• Applicants must have a travel end date, i.e., returning from travel, at least three months prior to their Programme ‘maximum end date’ (as defined on EUCLID) to ensure that they complete the required report form.
• Awards of more than £1,000 in any academic year are given only in exceptional cases.
• Awards are to support travel only. Fieldwork expenses, fees, accommodation, or food are not supported.
• A detailed justification of all travel costs is required. The Committee expect that you arrange the most cost-efficient travel arrangements and display this in your justification.
• Postgraduate students wishing to attend a conference are expected to have approached their funding body first. It is expected that students attending a conference will be giving a presentation (poster or oral). Note that confirmation of acceptance for a poster or presentation is required with the application.
• Travel to activities which contribute directly to a core or compulsory part of the applicant’s programme of study is excluded. Note that this exclusion applies to field or lab work that will contribute to any programme, such as an Honours project, dissertation, PIPS, MSc, or PhD thesis (including visiting a collaborator’s lab). Travel within the UK is excluded.
• For group applications, there must be no more than three applicants and information must be provided for ALL
• applicants within the group, including a separate UoE supporting letter for EACH APPLICANT.
• If a group application is being submitted, only one application per group should be completed.
• Incomplete applications will be rejected (see note below about abstract acceptance).

Read the Application Guidelines carefully BEFORE applying on-line.

These guidelines give details of the documents which must be uploaded with your application.

Apply online   (Please use Firefox or Chrome)

Applications considered

The Bequest Committee will meet soon after the application deadline to consider all applications. You will be advised of the outcome of your application as soon as possible after the Committee meeting. This will usually be within one month of the application deadline.

Within three months of your trip you are required to complete a Report Template which should provide the Bequest Committee with information on the work you have undertaken. Completed reports and Photography Consent forms (if applicable) should be submitted electronically to sbstravelfunds@ed.ac.uk.

Photography Consent 

Please note that whenever individuals can be identified by their image, General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) apply. In these situations, the rights of the individuals in the collection and use of their photograph(s) must be respected – they must be informed when an identifiable image of them will be or has been captured, before the image is used in any way. Please therefore ensure that when using any photographs within your report which contain identifiable individuals that you obtain their consent. A copy of the consent form can be found below for this purpose. Please ensure that all completed consent forms are returned along with your report.

You can read about the many trips undertaken with support from the James Rennie Bequest fund below.

Further information is available from the Secretary to the James Rennie Bequest, Peter Wilson Building, Room G.123, The King's Buildings.

sbstravelfunds@ed.ac.uk