Grants

What the grants are for

The purpose of the grants is to make it possible for applicants to visit countries outside the United Kingdom in order to undertake extra curricula conservation projects of up to three months, in one of the following fields:

• Historic buildings
• Historic landscapes and gardens
• Artefacts
• Historic decorative crafts

The grants are intended for practical study and conservation work.

Grants of between £300 and £3,000 have been awarded. A grant can meet almost all the cost of a study placement or make a contribution.

Applicants are responsible for choosing their own subjects and arranging their destination placements. ZGTF encourages applicants to learn new skills and widen their knowledge of their subjects. Preference is given to practical, hands-on projects, carried out under the guidance of a supervisor.

The Trustees look for imaginative and unusual ideas, likely to broaden the applicant’s understanding of their subject and widen their horizons.

Awards are made annually in April/May.

Click here for full details on Rules of Eligibility

Who is eligible

To be eligible, applicants should be studying (or have recently been studying), full or part time, for a recognised degree or diploma, or be post-graduates at a university or college, or be in the formative years of their careers.  They can also be trade apprentices, trainee architects or trainee landscape architects. There is no age limit.

The awards are open to applicants resident in the United Kingdom.  They do not have to be British.  If they are not British, then their chosen destination for their study should preferably not be their own home country (unless they can demonstrate a convincing reason connected with the field of study).

Preference is given to applicants whose trips are not a requirement of their university or college curricula, but who wish to make the trip on their own initiative.  Awards are not made to student groups.

How to apply for a grant

An application form can be found by clicking on application form.

Contact your destination early.  Find whether it offers the experience you want.  If you can, reserve a provisional place.  Ask the supervisor there for a letter or email confirming that a place has been reserved for you.

Plan and cost your trip carefully. When preparing your budget you may need to make some assumptions but you cannot expect a grant based entirely on guesses.

Fill in the form carefully and return it on line to ZGTF.  The closing date for applications is 31st March. 

ZGTF may not be able to give you all the money you need.  Try if you can to find additional sources, from other grant makers, or from friends and family or from part-time work.

Please remember:

• ZGTF does not give grants for placements in the UK.
• The grants are for short term, individual study and are not for attending formal courses.
• The grants are intended for conservation and not for new work.
• ZGTF does not as a rule pay for attending conferences.
• Grants will not be considered once a placement has begun.

Interviews and awards

Every application will be acknowledged.  After the closing date of 31st March, a shortlist of candidates will be called for interview. 

Interviews take place in London and in Lincoln.  You will be notified of the outcome. 

The awards are announced by the beginning of May.  When you hear you have been successful you should immediately take out travel insurance in case for any reason you later have to cancel your visit, as you would then be responsible for repaying to ZGTF all of the grant money you had received.

Grants are paid to you before your departure, in time to buy flight tickets and other essentials.  Up to 10% of the award is held back until your return to the UK, after you have given your presentation, submitted your written report and accounted for your expenditure.

The awards are made on the understanding that they are used only for your placements.  If you do not need all the monies received, you will be expected to return the rest to ZGTF.  

As well as the award, you will need to find your own pocket money.

Presentation and written reports

Within three months of your return, you will be required to:

• Provide a written report .  Guidelines will be provided.
• Give a power point presentation to the Trustees.
• Provide a record of expenditure, together with travel tickets and invoices.
• Provide written confirmation from your destination supervisor that you had completed your placements.

On completion of these tasks you will be eligible to call yourselves ’Zibby Garnett Scholars’.  It is hoped you will do this with pride, at every opportunity, eg when lecturing, on your curriculum vitae and on published material. The Trustees hope that Scholars will want to raise the profile of ZGTF by telling people about it and the opportunities which it offers.