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The Legal Humanities Association (LHA) seeks applications for the funding of small-scale research projects within the ‘legal humanities’, broadly understood (see ‘LHA Aims and Purposes’, below). There is a limit of £500 for any individual application (see ‘LHA Budget’ below). While individuals can submit multiple applications, the LHA will normally only fund one project per applicant.

The LHA welcome’s applications for any kind of research activity within the legal humanities. Examples for this scale of funding include:

• Funding for workshops and smaller events, covering such items as key speaker travel and accommodation and/or catering
• Travel and accommodation for research trips to specialist libraries or archives
• Costs of research services such as translation, transcription, etc
• Other cost items for which a rationale can be provided by the applicant(s)

Items the LHA will not fund:

• Subsistence and expenses beyond travel and accommodation
• Honoraria and other similar payments
• Costs deemed to fall outside the LHA’s aims and purposes (see below)

Email for queries and submissions:funding@legalhumanities.com

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2026.

All members of the Legal Humanities Association are eligible to apply for funding under this call. Projects for which funding is sought should be substantially complete by August 2027.

To find out how to become a member of the LHA, visit legalhumanities.com/join/

Applications will be judged in relation to the nature, importance, and outcomes of the proposed project or activity, considered in the context of the LHA’s aims and purposes (see below). The question of nature primarily goes to whether the proposal is within the scope of the LHA’s remit. The questions of importance and outcomes are more substantive, and look to the project’s significance, value, practicability, and potential effects. The submitted rationale should seek to justified these in disciplinary, practical, or other terms as appropriate to the project in question.

In all cases, the goal of the LHA’s funding is to be supportive of important work within the legal humanities community, broadly understood, and applications will be considered in a collegiate spirit.

Process: Applications will be reviewed by a panel made up of a small number of members of the LHA Governance Committee. The panel’s recommendations will then be reviewed and approved by a meeting of the LHA Governance Committee. While all applications are considered together, special consideration will be given to promoting those from Early Career Researchers and underrepresented groups within academia.

The application deadline is 30 September 2026. To apply, email a single attached document containing the following sections.

Project Title

Applicant Details: Names and affiliations of all applicants

Contact Details: Email address for a single communicating or lead applicant

Project Rationale (300 words)

A short statement outlining the nature, importance, and outcomes of the project. Applications should clearly explain how the project furthers the LHA’s aims and purposes. If necessary, a rationale justifying that the project falls within the ‘legal humanities’ remit of the LHA should be included (see ‘LHA Aims and Purposes’ below).

Funding Rationale (100 words)

Please include details of why the funding being applied for is necessary and/or how it will be used to facilitate the project.

Budget

An itemised list of all cost items and details of any e.g. match funding or items for which funding is not being sought or that has an alternative source of financial support.

Email as an attachment to: funding@legalhumanities.com

Funds must be transferred to successful applicant or their institution by November 2026, with projects substantially completed by August 2027.

Successful applicants will also be required to provide a short report to the LHA (100-200 words) on the conduct of their project. A version of this report will be included on the LHA website, and may be used for other public-facing materials as appropriate.

The ‘Legal Humanities Association’ should be acknowledged as a funder for the project in its materials and/or publications. LHA logo files will be available on request.

The LHA has £1,500 available for member funding in its 2026 budget. This is the LHA’s first year, and it is hoped that as the Association grows then larger amounts of funding will become available for future funding rounds. Because the LHA’s budget is relatively limited, individual applications for funding should ideally be within a range up to £300, but we will consider applications up to a maximum total value of £500 per application. This is to help maximise the number of projects that the LHA can support.

For reference, from LHA Constitution, Art 3(1):

‘The aims and purposes of the Association are as follows: (a) to foster and support the development of cultural understandings of law and humanities-inflected legal scholarship, (b) to nurture and maintain an open community of scholars working in these areas, and (c) to facilitate personal, professional, intellectual, and scholarly development.’ (Full LHA Constitution)

For more details on what the LHA’s remit might encompass, see the LHA’s About page.