Research & Scientific Expeditions
Scientific expeditions are mounted to gain access to remote and challenging places in order to carry out scientific research.
Not all research is carried out in such a manner, especially today with the advent of satellites, computer modelling, archive sources and large public data sets.
The Society’s work to advance geographical science encompasses both scientific expeditions and other forms of research.
The discipline of geography is broad, spanning environmental processes and change on the one hand to socio-economic and cultural studies on the other.
Our Charter does not enable us to fund or run expeditions that have adventure as the primary purpose.
Many of the projects we do fund retain aspects of traditional adventure, especially where the studies are in remote areas.
Our funding support is given primarily on the basis of the quality and importance of the research (science and social science) being proposed.
The Society provides extensive other support, in addition to funding and approval, for research and scientific expeditions, including training, advice, information resources and opportunities for dissemination.
The historical perspective
Since 1830, we have been giving grants to individuals and teams to support the generation of new geographical knowledge through research and scientific expeditions.
For much of the Society’s history this has been the main way we have funded research and scientific expeditions. Some historical examples are given on our grants pages.
At times in the past the Society has also supported research projects and scientific expeditions by loaning equipment; by lending the Society’s name (endorsement); and by fundraising for and leading its own projects, sometimes in partnership. The approach has varied depending upon circumstances at the time.
Between 1977 and 2001 the emphasis was placed on funding and leading 11 successive, single, large multidisciplinary field research programmes (SLRPs). The largest SLRP, between 1998-2001, had a target budget of £2m and realised c. £1.5m of funding in cash and kind.
Read about these single large field research projects
University academics and researchers from research institutes undertook the majority of the field studies on the SLRPs. Therefore, at that time, the Society’s work was heavily focussed on academics and scholars.
In addition, grants for largely undergraduate team expeditions commenced in 1950s and have continued to present, largely unchanged. Numbers of grants awarded have declined in recent years owing to falling numbers of applications. This is a result of increasing take up of gap years, easier and cheaper travel, and the introduction of university fees and the associated need for many students to work to earn money during the summer. The value of the individual grants given has increased.
Reviews in 2001 and 2004
In 2001 and 2004, there were thorough strategic reviews of this aspect of the Society’s activities, chaired by the President and a Vice-President of the time and involving the Research Committee, the Expeditions and Fieldwork Committee and the Council.
They were carried out because of the changing research environment worldwide, with cost-effectiveness and value for money in mind, and in the context of the Society’s broad and balanced strategic development.
Fellows of the Society were invited to submit their views, some were specifically invited to comment, including all leaders of the former single, large multi-disciplinary research programmes (SLRPs), and they did.
It was noted in the reviews that “some SLRPs were successful, others less so”. Many reported considerable fundraising difficulties. In the most recent, concerns were expressed about value for money, high administration costs, limited quality scientific outputs, and financial risks.
Council concluded SLRPs were not the best contemporary model - given changes in the research environment and increasing SLRP costs – and that a wider range of topics deserved research.
The reviews made a number of recommendations.
These recommendations have been implemented and will be evaluated in summer 2009.
The changing research environment
The changing nature of the research environment over the past ten to fifteen years was one of the major factors in changing the Society’s approach.
Changes have included:
- The introduction by the higher education sector of full economic costs for established university researchers’ time thus adding substantially to total costs of research projects and scientific expeditons. Previously, programme and team leaders of the SLRPs all contributed huge amounts of time at no cost to the Society;
- The increasing costs of large scale research and infrastructure to support it as a whole; new technologies of collecting and analysing data are expensive.
- The pressure for funds to be received directly through universities and by researchers themselves;
- The availability of large grants from the research councils that are accessible to academics but not to the Society;
- The high ranking in university research assessment given to funding from the research councils;
- Big science thematic projects funded by research councils and generally formulated and led by research institutes such as the British Antarctic Survey. The Society is not a research institute;
- Greater in-country research capacity and funding across the world;
- Researchers requests for more small and medium sized grants across the breadth of the discipline.
The Society’s approach since 2001
The Society took a decision, as a result of the reviews, to refocus its support for research and scientific expeditions to the broad-based strategy it employs today.
- It raised funds, between 2001 and 2004, in order to provide for a significant increase in grant giving per year;
- Grant giving for established researchers rose from fewer than £10,000 in 1997 to more than £120,000 in 2008;
- It established pump priming funding for six projects under the Research Programme theme of ‘geographical perspectives on global change’;
- It continues to support largely undergraduate expeditions, in the same way as in the past.
This decision was made by the Society’s Council, elected from its Fellowship. It involved and was supported by the Expeditions and Fieldwork Committee and the Research Committee, some members of which also served on the review panels.
The Society’s current strategy, and its particular approach to enhanced grant-giving for research and scientific expeditions, has the support of the present Council and all the living past Presidents of the Society.
Outcomes of this approach include
Ongoing review
The Society’s approach to how it supports the generation of new knowledge will continue to be evaluated and reviewed, as a regular process along with other aspects of the Society’s strategy.
We shall continue to consider grant-giving, endorsement, and funding and leading our own research projects and scientific expeditions, in those reviews, along with any other models that may be appropriate to the times.
The Society’s Trustees need the flexibility to be able to adjust how we deliver that support in the future in a way that best meets the needs, opportunities, and constraints, that is cost-effective, and that manages financial and other risks to the Society.
The five year review that was planned at the time the enhanced grant-giving was fully introduced will take place later this summer. Those calling for the resolution were invited, in 2008, to contribute to this review.