Grants

Annual or one-off grants are awarded on a competitive basis to applications from CES members.

To help support regional meetings, working groups, side events at the meetings of other scientific societies, and other activities, CES invites applications from members for workshop funding. Student members are particularly encouraged to apply.

Sorry, the deadline has passed for this grant

CES is delighted to announce a new funding initiative, thanks to a generous donation from Eric and Peggy Peterson. Click here to learn more about the donors.

The awards will run from 2023-2027 and help support and increase the global reach of cultural evolution research by supporting early career researchers, outreach efforts, and capacity building in Low-and-Middle Income countries.

The award scheme is as follows. Note that modifications in number of awards and award amounts may be made for 2025-27, based on an assessment of interest and impact that the different award categories generate in 2023-25.

1. ACE Building Research Capacity Award

The following application is for one award of up to $6000 to support either:

  1. A researcher from a Low-and-middle-income (LMIC) or Global South (GS) country to visit a host institution anywhere in the world to obtain training or collaborate with cultural evolution research. (Application type 1)
  2. An established cultural evolution researcher from anywhere in the world to visit a host institution in an LMIC/GS country. (Application type 2)

We are ideally looking to support visits that are at least 3 months or longer. Visits should be focused on providing training in cultural evolution theory or methods, or developing research collaborations that help advance research capacity in LMIC/GS countries, or contribute to professional development of a scholar from an LMIC/GS country.  Visits can occur in the award year or the following year.

Sorry, the deadline has passed for this grant

2. ACE Outreach Awards

One award of up to $2500 for supporting activities to translate cultural evolution research for a non-academic audience or students outside of the field of cultural evolution. This can include activities such as

  • – travelling to study communities to disseminate research findings;
  • – translating a book or paper to another language;
  • – creating a professional video or film of a research project;
  • – developing dissemination materials;
  • – organizing a high-school student event hosting a meeting with policy makers
  • – preparing webinars, course materials, or workshops for undergraduate students

Sorry, the deadline has passed for this grant

3. ACE Early Career Research Grants

Two awards of up to $3000 each to support research projects in cultural evolution.

Sorry, the deadline has passed for this grant

4. Conference travel awards

We will give out four travel awards of up to $1500 during the CES conference years (2024 and 2026) for researchers from Low-and-middle income countries to attend the CES conference in person.

Deadline for the first award to be announced early in 2024

Thanks to the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation (Grant #61913), the Cultural Evolution Society is running a major funding scheme to address big questions in the field of Cultural Evolution. After all, how our cultures evolve (including how information is transmitted, how people make decisions, and the interaction with our biology) is a pressing issue in a world in which our cultural activities are causing rapid, and drastic, social and physical changes.

Sorry, the deadline has passed for these grants

Find out more about this grant scheme on the CES Transformation Fund website.


Awards

Awards are given to CES members for outstanding contributions to the field of cultural evolution. Applications open in the year of the bi-annual CES conference and award-winners are announced at the conference.

The Cultural Evolution Society awards the Richerson Award in honour of Peter J. Richerson. This award will be offered to a recent graduate who has produced outstanding doctoral research in the field of cultural evolution.

Pete has been a key figure in shaping and guiding the field of cultural evolution over several decades, and was the founding President of CES. This award aims to highlight new researchers who will go on to shape and guide our field. The award will be offered once every two years thanks to a generous donation from Peter Richerson.

The recipient will receive a $300 award, a three-year CES membership, and a waiver of registration fees for the upcoming Cultural Evolution Society conference. The award recipient’s name and thesis/dissertation title will be highlighted on the CES website and via social media, and announced at the bi-annual conference.

The next call for the Richerson Award will be in 2024 prior to the CES2024 conference in Durham, UK.

For queries about the New Investigator award, please contact Simon Greenhill, CES Awards committee chair (simon.greenhill@auckland.ac.nz).

Past winners:

2022: Manvir Singh, Institute for Advanced Study, Toulouse

 

The Cultural Evolution Society awards this to a researcher who has shown outstanding contribution and potential in the field of cultural evolution within 5 years of gaining their PhD.

This award is intended to highlight and recognise emerging researchers who have already made an impact on our field through their scholarship, or by integrating their research activities with superlative mentorship or training or academic service that has contributed to enhancing the scientific impact of the field.

The winner of the award will be given the opportunity to present a plenary talk highlighting their work at the bi-annual Cultural Evolution Society conference held the same year. The cost of travel, accommodation and registration fee to attend the conference will be covered by CES. We do not want to dissuade applicants who might not be able to travel to the 2022 conference. As such, we aim to be flexible in terms of giving the recipient the opportunity to give their plenary talk virtually, or defer their plenary talk to the next conference if virtual attendance this year is not possible.

The next call for the New Investigator Award will be in 2024 prior to the CES2024 conference in Durham, UK.

For queries about the New Investigator award, please contact Simon Greenhill, CES Awards committee chair (simon.greenhill@auckland.ac.nz).

Past winners:

2022: Nicole Wen, Brunel University London