EASR Bursaries Guidelines

1. The Treasurer of the EASR shall create a line item within the budget of the Association to account for funds received specifically to assist participation in EASR conferences through the awarding of bursaries. The number of bursaries varies each year depending on available funds.

2. Individual bursaries normally are partial and not intended to cover the total costs for attendance at an EASR conference. They cover exclusively the registration fee to the EASR conference, the travel to the conference site, and the accommodation (preferably among those offered by the organization of the conference at reduced price, when available). Apart from that, an amount of € 20 per day during the stay in the period of the conference will be calculated. No other expenses or costs will be reimbursed.

The reimbursement will take place only after the conference, upon presentation of the original documents (receipt of registration fee, flight or train ticket, student house or hotel bill). The bursaries will cover expenses up to a maximum amount, indicated every year in the general announcement (see below, point 5). In case less than this amount is spent by the applicant, the bursary will accordingly correspond to the actual covered costs plus the daily allowance.

3. Funds for bursaries will be secured from voluntary donations provided by member associations of the EASR and from individual contributors. Each year an appeal will be made by the EASR general secretary and treasurer to member associations and through them to individual contributors.

4. Funds will be made available to academic members and staff and to postgraduate research students under the following conditions:

a) The applicant must be a member of a fully paid-up national association for the study of religions affiliated to the European Association for the Study of Religions, or a fully paid-up individual member where there is no such association.

b) The applicant must show evidence of having sought funding from other available associations, such as the applicant’s home university or national funding organisations.

c) The applicant must present a paper at the conference.

d) The applicant must present a CV and a letter of recommendation from an officer within a national association of the EASR. If the applicant is a student, s/he must also provide a letter of support from his/her academic supervisor endorsing the quality of his/her application.

e) Preference will be given to those who have not received a bursary in previous years.

5. The number of bursaries and the conditions for applying for them will be announced no later than 6 months before an annual conference.

6. The deadline for applications normally will be 4 months before the EASR conference.

7. Decisions of awards will be made by consultation between the President, Secretary and Treasurer, or by their deputies as agreed by the Committee.

8. Awards will be announced no later than 3 months prior to the relevant EASR conference.  Please do not forget to send the Treasurer a letter of recommendation from an officer of your national association, which must be a fully paid-up member of the EASR (or ask the officer to write independently to the Treasurer before the deadline), and, if you are a student, a letter of endorsement from your supervisor.

A list of national member associations with names of officers and names of EASR delegates may be found on the EASR website. Applicants who are individual members of the EASR are dispensed from sending the letter of recommendation, unless they are students, in which case they require a letter of endorsement from their supervisor or a senior scholar.

Recommendation letters should be sent via email (preferably as documents in PDF format) to the EASR Treasurer, William Arfman (treasurer(à)easr.eu)

These guidelines were adopted by the EASR Executive Committee, Santander, 7 September 2004; and then revised at the EASR General Assembly in Bucharest, 22 September 2006; at the EASR General Assembly in Messina, 17 September 2009; and at the meeting of the Executive Committee in Erfurt, 23 August 2015.