© Bennett Curry
We are delighted to announce that the Frederick Soddy Trust has become a linked charity of RGS-IBG.
Established in 1957, the Frederick Soddy Trust was formed under the terms laid out in the will of chemist and Nobel Laureate Professor Frederick Soddy FRS, to support studies of the social, economic and cultural life of specific regions. Even though he was a distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Frederick Soddy was actively involved in the Le Play Society, founded in 1930 on the ideas of French sociologist Frédéric Le Play to promote educational fieldwork. Fearing that the Le Play Society was in decline, he established the Frederick Soddy Trust to support groups wishing to study, ‘the whole life of a community’.
The work of the Trust will now be continued by the Society in the form of the Frederick Soddy Awards to support studies of the social, economic and cultural life of specific regions, whether within the UK and Ireland or overseas.
Professor Peter Wood, former Chair of the Frederick Soddy Trust, said: “We are delighted that the work of the Frederick Soddy Trust in supporting the field studies of schools, expeditions and early career researchers will be sustained through the Frederick Soddy Award Fund. The new relationship with RGS-IBG will allow the Trust’s successes of the last 60 years to be carried forward and adapted to modern needs.”
These awards will support several grants. The Frederick Soddy Schools Award offers up to £600 for school fieldwork groups; the Frederick Soddy Postgraduate Award offers two annual awards of up to £6,000 for PhD students carrying out research on the social, cultural and economic life of a region anywhere in the world; and, as part of the Society’s Geographical Fieldwork Grants scheme, awards of up to £2,000 are available to groups undertaking primarily human geography research.
Deadlines for applications are coming up early in the new year, so make sure you apply now. Find out more or look for another grant.