Research Support Grants

The Oxford Q-Step Centre offers Oxford undergraduates the possibility to apply for a grant to support social science research involving quantitative methods.

Research support grants are designed to allow recipients to run surveys, digitize source data, or undertake other tasks necessary to complete a dissertation or other research project. Students could design a questionnaire to be fielded by a survey company like YouGov or via a crowdsourcing platform like Mechanical Turk; they could specify a data collection task to be undertaken by a data collection company like Digital Divide Data or through a platform like Upwork; they could purchase data for use in their research; or they could purchase software or hardware that allows them to undertake specific research tasks.

Although the OQC grants are primarily designed to support students in their dissertation research, students condering undertaking other types of research are strongly encouraged to apply. For example, a student may wish to undertake an independent research project about an industry or organization, possibly with guidance or cooperation from a non-academic supervisor. In these cases, the grants provide an opportunity for a student to obtain funding for a self-designed internship. To the extent possible, such a project should have a well-defined output. A particular goal of OQC grants is to offer support to students who would not be able to conduct the specified research without grant support. 

Most grants will be under £500 each, but a larger grant will be considered in a compelling case. Grants are awarded on a rolling basis (i.e. with no fixed deadline), but funds are limited so applying earlier in the academic year will give the best chance of success. After completion of the project, grant recipients will be asked to provide a report on their use of funds; they may also be invited to describe their project in an event including all grant recipients.

Applications should be sent to oqc@politics.ox.ac.uk. A complete application includes:

  • Contact information for the applicant
  • Contact information for the student’s supervisor on the research project or, if supervisor has not been determined, college tutor
  • A brief description of the research project (up to 500 words), including details on the use of quantitative methods
  • A budget and accompanying explanation (up to 250 words) justifying the funding requested

  • Quality of proposed project, including prospect for success and nature of output
  • Clarity of what funds will be used for
  • Feasibility of project (including given circumstances surrounding COVID-19)
  • Support from the supervisor or college tutor
  • If the research is not for a dissertation, clear indication of what research output will be