The scheme aims to support philosophy graduate students at UK universities to organise conferences, so they have the opportunity to present and receive feedback on their work from their peers and from more established philosophers, and to gain experience of conference organisation. Applications which evidence these opportunities are thus encouraged, e.g., by demonstrating that most of the papers will be from graduate students, and that graduate papers will have established philosophers as commentators and/or in the audience.
Each year we offer a number of grants to a total of £5,000 for the programme as a whole.
Applications for the academic year 2025/2026 are now open. Applications close on Monday, 26th May.
For the purposes of this scheme, 2025/26 events run from 1 Aug 2025 – 31 May 2026.
There is no set format for graduate conferences. However, while presentations from a small number of keynote speakers are encouraged, please note that the primary object of the Royal Institute graduate conferences is to enable current graduate students to gain experience of presenting their work to conference audiences, and to receive feedback. Thus applications are encouraged which evidence the fact that graduate papers will have established philosophers as commentators and/or established philosophers in the audience. A secondary object of the Royal Institute graduate conferences is to give current graduate students experience of conference organisation so plans and responsibilities for organising the conference should be made clear in your application. Applications are welcome both from institutions who have a track record of successfully putting on such conferences, and from new applicants.
Applicants must take note of our terms and conditions of grant funding.