Grants

BIA Travel Awards

1st Round - Applications open 1st October - 31st January - CLOSED FOR 2025, Assessment in progress.

2nd Round - Applications are open between 1st February - 30th June - NOW OPEN

3rd Round* - Applications are open between 1st July - 30th September - OPENING JULY

Applications can be made at any time throughout the year, and will be assessed after the 31st January, 30th June and 30th September. Each award is for a maximum of £1000. Four awards will be made in each round, with one ring-fenced for undergraduate students.

These awards support registration and travel (if appropriate) to major national or international meetings (either in person or on-line), in particular, ASM, ICAAC, IDSA, and ECCMID to present original research, where the abstract is already accepted. Accommodation costs may also be included up to the grant limit. You can make applications for retrospective expenses if the timing of the conference, or abstract notification, did not align with the application deadlines.

Travel grants are assessed by the Scientific and Research Committee and awarded according to pre-determined criteria that include:

UK or Ireland-based salaried trainees who are not in a consultant-level post, working on infection-related research. This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, trainee clinical scientists, high specialist scientist trainees, and other healthcare-focused careers.
UK or Ireland-based undergraduates working on infection-related research.
Acceptance of an abstract for an oral or poster presentation at the conference.
Benefit to the applicant from attending the conference.
All applicants will be required to be members of the British Infection Association. Individuals can join at the time of submitting their applications. Membership is free of charge for all undergraduate students, medically-qualified doctors-in-training in the UK and Ireland, as well as non-medically qualified personnel including nurses, pharmacists and laboratory scientists.

To apply, please forward to admin@Britishinfection.org

A cover letter/email summarising the potential impact and case for support
Name of conference
Accepted abstract
Letter of acceptance
2-page C.V.

*3rd round applications to conferences other than FIS will be prioritised, given the availability of separate FIS bursaries, please see below for more information.

Federation of Infection Societies (FIS) Conference Bursary

Applications open: 1st July 2025
Closing date: 30 September 2025

BIA are providing up to 8 bursary places to support registration and travel to the FIS Conference for eligible applicants whose abstract are already accepted. One bursary will be ring-fenced for undergraduate applicants. Accommodation costs may also be included, up to £1000 grant limit.

FIS Bursaries will be assessed by the Scientific and Research Committee and awarded according to pre-determined criteria that include:

UK or Ireland-based salaried trainees who are not in a consultant-level post, working on infection-related research. This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, trainee clinical scientists, higher specialist scientist trainees, and other healthcare-focused careers.
UK or Ireland-based undergraduates working on infection-related research.
Acceptance of an abstract for an oral or poster presentation at the conference.
Benefit to the applicant from attending the conference.
All applicants will be required to be members of the British Infection Association. Individuals can join at the time of submitting their applications. Membership is free of charge for all undergraduate students, medically qualified doctors-in-training in the UK and Ireland, as well as non-medically qualified personnel including nurses, pharmacists and laboratory scientists.

To apply, please forward by e-mail to admin@Britishinfection.org

A cover letter/email summarising the potential impact and case for support
Name of conference
Accepted abstract
Letter of acceptance
2-page C.V.

APPLICATIONS WILL OPEN 1st JULY 2025

Barnett Christie Lecture at FIS 2025

Applications open: 3rd June 2025
Applications close: Midnight, 31st August 2025

Each year the BIA invites applications to deliver this highly prestigious lecture at the conference of the Federation of Infection Societies. The successful applicant will be invited to give a lecture at the annual meeting of the Federation of Infection Societies (FIS) held each autumn.

Award: In addition to presenting this BIA lecture, your attendance at the conference is funded to include, FIS Conference.Registration, accommodation and travel. The award winner will also receive £1,500 cash award.

Application process:

A two-sided A4 outline of a proposed lecture plus a short curriculum vitae, listing all publications and other relevant scientific achievements should be sent by e-mail to the admin@Britishinfection.org
All applications will be reviewed by the Scientific and Research Committee and scored according to their body of independent research, its quality, novelty and impact, the quality of the lecture proposal and career trajectory.

Eligibility:

UK and Ireland based clinically-qualified trainees in infection or infection-related specialties who are not in a Consultant-level post.
UK and Ireland based non-clinical post-doctoral scientists within 4 years of PhD and not in a tenured academic or top-grade scientist post. If you are beyond 4 years since awarding of PhD, but have had career breaks (e.g. for maternity, paternity or other reasons), you could still be eligible and should explain the situation in a covering email or letter with the application.

BIA Early Career Research Grant

Applications Open: 7th October 2025
Applications Close: 31st January 2026

These awards flexibly provide consumables and/or salary costs for trainees undertaking an infection-related research project in an academic centre in the UK or Ireland. Trainees will usually be working in an infection-related speciality and pre-PhD but other applicants from related specialities will be considered. The BIA recognises that not all trainees have the benefit of protected research time as part of an Academic Clinical Fellowship or similar scheme but may be interested in furthering an academic career. The Early Career Research Grant will therefore prioritise those without research salary support to generate preliminary data with the intention of taking the work forward towards a higher degree. It is expected that this would enable the successful candidate to take time out of their training, for example as a block of up to 3 months or spread part-time over part/all of the award period in preparation for a fellowship application.

Type of Award: One award would be made of £30,000 to be taken up over one to three years as required for the proposed research, to cover salary and/or non-salary costs of research.

Eligibility:

UK or Ireland-based salaried trainees undertaking an infection-related research project who are not in a consultant-level post.
This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, trainee clinical scientists, high specialist scientist trainees, and other healthcare-focused careers.
All applicants must be supported by a named supervisor(s) at the place of intended research.
Applicants who do not have salaried research time in their job plan and who do not yet have a PhD will be prioritised, but other applicants will be considered.
All applicants will be required to be members of the British Infection Association. Individuals can join at the time of submitting their applications. Membership is free of charge for medically qualified doctors-in-training in the UK and Ireland, as well as non-medically qualified personnel including nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists .

Application Process:

Complete the BIA Research Grant Application Form and return to admin@Britishinfection.org
All applications will be reviewed by the Scientific and Research Committee and scored according to importance, clarity of aims, appropriateness of research methodology, feasibility and potential impact.

Tenure: 1-3 years, Grants must be taken up within 12 months of award.

BIA Small Project Grant

Applications Open: 7th October 2025
Applications Close: 31st January 2026

These awards provide consumables costs for trainees undertaking an infection-related research project in an academic centre in the UK or Ireland. Funds are intended to support the generation of preliminary data with the intention of developing the work through a research fellowship or as an adjunct to existing but as yet unfunded projects.

Type of Award: Up to four awards will be made of up to £10,000 for 12 months, to cover non-salary costs of research only. One award will be ring fenced for applicants who are allied health professionals who not medically qualified.

Eligibility:

UK or Ireland-based salaried trainees undertaking an infection-related research project who are not in a consultant-level post.
This includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, trainee clinical scientists, high specialist scientist trainees, and other healthcare-focused careers.
All applicants must be supported by a named supervisor(s) at the place of intended research.
Applicants may be pre- or post-doctoral, with applications from these different career stages assessed separately.
All applicants will be required to be members of the British Infection Association. Individuals can join at the time of submitting their applications. Membership is free of charge for medically qualified doctors-in-training in the UK and Ireland, as well as non-medically qualified personnel including nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists.

Application Process:

Complete the BIA Small Project Grant Application Form and return to admin@Britishinfection.org
All applications will be reviewed by the Scientific and Research Committee and scored according to importance, clarity of aims, appropriateness of research methodology, feasibility and potential impact.
The Scientific Advisory Committee will endeavour to make awards to both pre-and post-doctoral researchers at every grant round.

Tenure: 1 year. Grants must be taken up within 12 months of award.

BIA/ECSCMID Young Scientist Member Travel Award

APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED

The BIA/ESCMID Young Scientist member travel award provides registration and 500 € travel/accommodation allowance. BIA welcomes applications from those who have submitted abstracts for ECCMID. Applicants need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

Young Scientist Member of ESCMID
Trainee Member of the BIA
Abstract accepted to ECCMID 2026

This award is highly competitive and therefore individual case presentations or retrospective series are unlikely to be successful.

APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED