Research Grant
The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (CSFS) offers two annual Research Grants, each to a maximum of £5,000, to appropriately qualified candidates, who meet the required criteria.
The Society makes these awards to improve the quality of practice of forensic sciences, champion research and development, and support CSFS members in professional development, particularly those with limited access to funding or early career researchers/practitioners.
Description
The research proposals should be related to research projects in forensic science, criminal justice, forensic science policy and/or practice, forensic medicine, crime investigation and forensic science/crime investigation education and training.
In order to support the breadth of the forensic science community each year one award will be for a project led from within the academic field and one award for a project led from within the practitioner field.
Criteria
The Grant application is open to professional level members of the Society (Associate, Member, Fellow, Chartered). Applicants must have been professional members of The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences for at least 1 calendar year prior to application.
The research must be carried out at an institute or organisation accepted by CSFS Council.
The Award
CSFS will award two annual Research Grants, each to a maximum of £5,000,
Application
Those wishing to apply for this grant must submit the following documents:
- Completed Research Grant Application Form
- Personal Research Statement: Please write a brief personal statement outlining your relevant experience and track record in research
- Case Support Statement: Describe your research question, aims and objectives, methodology, research plan, any risk and associated mitigation with the project, intended benefit and impact of the project, plans for dissemination
- Gantt Chart illustrating milestones and deliverables of the proposed research
- Detailed Financial costing for the funds requested
- Contact details of an independent referee that the Society may contact for peer review
Download the full criteria and CSFS Research Grant Application Pack if you wish to apply.
Important Dates
The closing date for applications is 30th April.
Applicants will be notified of results in July.
Previous Winners
Research Grant (from 2022)
- 2026 Ms Abi Snasdell Tracing the Untraceable: Forensic Attribution of 3D Printed Firearms
- 2025 Dr Helen Tidy Can Hyperspectral Imaging be used to identify blood in a non-destructive manner when examining knives?
- 2024 Not awarded
- 2023 Dr Nick Dawnay Development and application of forensic tools to support Police investigations into poaching and habitat destruction of the endangered freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) in the United Kingdom.
- 2022 Dr Kevin Farrugia Alternative carrier solvents and methods for the development of latent fingermarks
Research Scholarship (to 2021)
- 2021 Paul Sherriffs Pseudo-Operational Development of Fingermarks on Thermal Papers
- 2020 Dan Bonsu Forensic Trace DNA recovery from metal and metal-coated surfaces
- 2019 Lucinda Davenport Investigating the use of massively parallel sequencing for complex kinship analysis
- 2018 Dr Athina Vidaki The ‘Five Cs’ of mitochondrial DNA: Cytosine modifications as novel epigenetic tags for estimating age in forensics
- 2017 Sophie Hartless Critical Evaluation of DNA Recovery Methods for Forensic Purposes
- 2016 Dr Kevin Farrugia The effect of mark enhancement techniques on the subsequent detection of blood
- 2015 Dr Georgina Meakin An investigation into the optimal locations to recover ‘wearer DNA’ from clothing
- 2014 Kimberley Bexon Forensic microRNA analysis of body fluids relating to sexual assaults
- 2013 Dr Samuel Cadd An investigation into the chemical composition of fingerprints
- 2012 Charlotte Orphanou The age and origin determination of biological material using RNA analysis