Grants & Prizes TIRF-British Council Research Mentoring Awards

Eligibility

To be eligible for a TIRF-British Council Research Mentoring Award, applicants must satisfy the following requirements:

1. be a doctoral student in good standing in their respective universities;
2. be from one of the countries selected from the OECD DAC list—particularly in Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, or Latin America—and attending a university in one of these countries; and
3. have a supervisor who is willing to sign the required supervisor statement.

The list of countries eligible for the TIRF-British Council RMAs follows here:

• Africa: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
• East Asia: Mongolia and North Korea
• Latin America: Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Uruguay
• Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam

Key Features

Applicants must download and read the TIRF-British Council Research Mentoring Awards call for proposals, as well as use the application and doctoral supervisor statement forms when submitting their proposals. Links to each of these documents follow here:

• Call for proposals – click here
• Application form – click here
• Doctoral Supervisor statement – click here

In addition, please note the following:

• Awardees receive US $500 per proposal.
• Allocations of funds are made subject to budgetary availability.
• Awards can be used to cover expenses directly related to developing the research proposal or for conference travel for dissemination of the research. Submitting a budget to TIRF is not necessary.  
• Applications should address an area of focus under TIRF’s research topics. The selected topic must be either related directly to English language education or have strong implications for English language education, including the relationship between the spread of English as a majority language and minority language endangerment.  
• Applications and all correspondence with TIRF must be in English.
• TIRF also requires a brief final report by February 3, 2025, documenting experiences in the mentoring program and their benefit to the mentee, as well as a copy of the final research proposal. Final reports should be sent to [email protected].

Research Topics

Proposed topics for research for the TIRF-British Council RMAs should closely and explicitly address an area of focus under one of TIRF’s three research topics (1) Language Planning and Policy; (2) Language Assessment; and (3) Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Preparation. A detailed explanation of TIRF’s research topics and the areas of focus can be found by clicking here. The list of topics on TIRF’s website follows here:

• Content-based Instruction
• Digital Technology in Language Education
• English as a Medium of Instruction
• Language Assessment
• Language Policy and Planning
• Language Teacher Education
• Migrants and Refugees: Teaching and Assessing English
• Plurilingualism in Business, Industry, the Professions, and Educational Contexts
• Research on Revitalization of Endangered Indigenous Languages
• Students’ Age and Effective English Language Education
• Teaching English to Young Learners

Possible Constraints on Awards

Please note that the ability for TIRF to make payments for a grant, prize, or other purpose may be restricted. Although TIRF is an independent foundation, it remains subject to the laws governing the United States of America (where TIRF is registered), including governmental sanctions that are in force and may limit doing business with individuals or organizations in/from certain countries.