Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)

Travel and Funding

LIAS offers various forms of financial support to faculty members. Application forms can be found in the column on the right-hand side.

LIAS Travel Funding

Applicants can receive up to 1500 euros per calendar year to fund 1 business trip, i.e. to cover travel and accommodation costs incurred for presenting at (inter)national academic events such as conferences, seminars, or roundtable meetings. Applications for LIAS Travel Funding can be submitted throughout the year.

Please note that LIAS only covers hotel accommodation (including breakfast). LIAS does not reimburse any other subsistence costs incurred during your journey, regardless of whether or not you are travelling on official business. See here for more information about business trips abroad.

LIAS Teaching Relief

The LIAS teaching relief grant offers successful applicants funding to replace some of their teaching activities (max. 3 courses) with research activities. These research activities may consist of fieldwork, archival/library research, finalizing publications, writing grant proposals, etc. Junior faculty members are especially encouraged to apply, as they could profit from the opportunity to complete projects important for their career advancement. There are two separate categories:

1. Teaching relief for language instructors who do not have allocated research time (the outcomes of your proposed research project should directly benefit/improve your teaching activities);

2. Teaching relief for faculty who have allocated research time.

The current deadline for applications is 4 November 2022. Teaching relief will be available for the 2023 Autumn semester and the 2024 Spring semester. Applications will be assessed by the LIAS Scientific Committee (chaired by prof. Jonathan Silk).

External funding

KNAW Early Career Partnerships

An Academy Early Career Partnership enables early career researchers to organise a meeting with participants from different scientific disciplines to jointly explore unconventional, innovative ideas or methods for fundamental research. A maximum of ten Partnerships are allocated annually. The allocation consists of a maximum of € 10,000 for organising a meeting at the Academy or at a location of choice, such as the Lorentz Center.

Gerda Henkel Foundation

The Gerda Henkel Foundation concentrates its support on the historical humanities. In some of the programmes the Foundation furthermore addresses issues of great relevance to contemporary life and the future, above all as part of its special programme “Security, Society and the State”. As part of the Lisa Maskell Fellowship programme, the Foundation supports young scholars in the humanities in both Africa and Southeast Asia.

Leiden University Fund

Leiden University researchers can apply to the Leiden University Fund (LUF) for various grants, such as funding for academic projects, fieldwork or study trips overseas. For an overview of their funding instruments for researchers in the humanities, please see here.

Juynboll Foundation

The Juynboll Foundation aims to promote the study of Arabic and Islam within the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University, by offering financial support to (young) scholars.

Canon Foundation in Europe

The objective of the Canon Foundation in Europe is the promotion of science, culture, know-how and mutual understanding between Europe and Japan. This aim should be reached by annually providing up to 15 Canon Foundation Research Fellowships to postgraduate students and researchers. Europeans receive the Fellowship for long term periods of research in Japan and, similarly, Japanese to undertake research in Europe.

J. Gonda Foundation Fund

The J. Gonda Foundation Fund supports scientific research into Sanskrit, other classical Indian languages, Indian literature and cultural history.

International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA)

The IASA grants are intended to support research in any academic area covered by the IASA’s aims, which are to promote research relating to the Arabian Peninsula, in particular, its archaeology, art, culture, epigraphy, ethnography, geography, geology, history, languages, literature and natural history. Grants may be used to fund fieldwork, library or laboratory-based research or research support.

American Schools for Oriental Research (ASOR)

ASOR offers a variety of fellowships and scholarships. ASOR supports for dig scholarships, excavation grants for the ASOR-affiliated projects, scholarships for participation in the ASOR Annual Meeting, a Mesopotamian Fellowship, and study of collections fellowships for ASOR members.

Council for British Research in the Levant

CBRL offers funded fellowships, project awards and travel grants. CBRL also offers unfunded honorary fellowships and project affiliations. Please note that only CBRL members are eligible to apply for funding.