The Evans Fund

Overview

The Advisory Committee for the Evans Fund invites applications for Evans Fellowships for academic year 2026-2027, to support anthropological or archaeological research in or about Southeast Asia. Candidates are expected either to be based in Cambridge, or to plan a visit to Cambridge as part of their overall research activity.

Persons of any nationality, based anywhere, and at any career stage (from PhD research upwards) are eligible for awards. Current PhD students at Cambridge who are doing research in Southeast Asia are encouraged to apply for Evans Fund support as early as possible during their course, as part of their general fieldwork funding application process (and should write to the Evans Fund administrator at research@socanth.cam.ac.uk for further guidance well in advance of application). Researchers trained or based in allied disciplines are also eligible to apply, if links to anthropology or archaeology are central to the proposed work. Southeast Asia is defined as Borneo, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam. Past recipients of an Evans Fellowship are eligible to apply for new awards, whether continuing earlier Evans-supported work or on a different project, to a maximum of three cumulative awards.

There are two tiers of award: Small Grants (normally up to £7,000), and Large Grants (normally £10,000-£20,000). Applications for a Large Grant are expected to demonstrate exceptional merit, and to be based on prior consultation with academic staff of an intended host department. Awards in this category will not necessarily be made in every year. Current PhD students, if seeking support for their PhD work, are only eligible to apply for a Small Grant.

The supporting endowment stipulates that one criterion of evaluation be how the funded activities will ‘contribute to the furtherance of the study of anthropology and archaeology in Cambridge’. Prompts about this are part of the application template.

How to Apply

Applicants should request the application template and brief additional guidance by emailing research@socanth.cam.ac.uk

Completed applications, including a letter of recommendation sent directly by the referee, should be submitted to research@socanth.cam.ac.uk by 5pm GMT on Friday, 24 April 2026. Large Grant applicants will also need to ensure that a Cambridge-based mentor or host sends a letter in the same way, by the same deadline.

Please direct any queries to research@socanth.cam.ac.uk.