Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture announced research grants for historians and researchers seeking to conduct research focused on the founding of the first Saudi state by Imam Muhammad bin Saud in 1727.
The 1139 Research Grants for the Foundation Day will be awarded to qualified researchers and historians from universities and research centers.
In its first edition this year, the grant has a focus on the social, political and cultural history of the first Saudi state, most notably culture, urbanization in cities of Najd, Diriyah before its founding, and social life, education and entertainment in the first Saudi state, in addition to poetry, hunting and wildlife in Wadi Hanifa.
The Ministry said applications for grants can be submitted between July 1 and mid-August. It has allocated 20,000 Riyals for each grant for papers between 10 and 12 thousand words. An additional 10,000 Riyal grant will be awarded to researchers whose paper gets accepted in a peer-reviewed journal or approved as an encyclopedia entry.
The ministry has set the terms and conditions for applying for grants. The most important are: the applicant must either have a master’s or doctorate degree or a solid research record. The research should be desk work, as the grants this year do not include fieldwork. Applicants also have to meet the deadline for submission, as no application submitted at a later date will be accepted. Applicants must submit a research abstract in 800 words, as well as an explanation for why they chose this topic, the methodology they will follow, and, most importantly, the sources that will be relied on, as well as the duration of the research which cannot exceed nine months.
