Bursaries

2024 Bursary applications are now closed

Bursaries - Helping you to attend Conference?

Best value in the sector

The ARA Conference is the best-value event of its kind in the sector: the full delegate fee includes accommodation, food and a concentrated three-day programme. The Conference committee recognises the difficulty many members face in finding the finances or getting time off to attend. It has therefore developed special day-attendance fees and bursaries to help people attend who might not otherwise be able.

These bursaries are available to those who have not received a conference bursary in the last three years (i.e. in Belfast 2023, Chester 2022, Leeds 2019).

The Bursaries

Full bursaries cover full Conference attendance (the three-day programme, two nights’ accommodation at the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre and three meals a day) and travel expenses of up to £100.

We have four types of bursaries this year:

ARA Bursaries

ARA Member Bursary

To apply you must be an individual member of the Association who has been a member for at least one year and who is, at the closing date for applications, either a student member, a full member, an overseas member or is registered on the conservation certificate course.

Four full ARA Bursaries are available.

New Professionals Bursary

One full bursary is available for members of the ARA Section for New Professionals who have never attended an ARA conference or received an ARA bursary of any sort.

The funds for this bursary are raised by crowd-funding. 

ARA Diversity Bursaries

Two bursaries are open to members and non-members of the ARA.

Applicants need to meet the following criteria:

• Have a Black and/or Minority Ethnic background
  
• Not have a postgraduate qualification in archives, conservation or records management
  

(If you are a speaker at Conference from a Black and/or Minority Ethnic background, you are eligible to apply for any ARA Diversity bursary)

Ancestry Bursaries

Four bursaries are available through our Premier Conference sponsors:

Ancestry.co.uk

These bursaries are available to archivists, including archive managers, company archivists, principal archivists and collection managers from a local authority archive who have either never attended the ARA Conference before or have not attended in the last three years (i.e. were not at Belfast 2023, Chester 2022, Leeds 2019).