HSA Student/Trainee Scholarship

HSA Student/Trainee Scholarships provide up to £3,600 to enable students or trainees in the industry to carry out a project that is clearly aimed at improving the welfare of food animals in markets, during transport or at slaughter.

Please read carefully the Terms and Conditions for HSA Student/Trainee Scholarships before completing the application form. 

Who can apply for an AWSS?

Applications are welcome from undergraduate or MSc students, or industry trainees in the livestock, meat and fish industries.

Please note: PhD students are not eligible to apply

What should the project be about?

The project must be relevant to improving or assessing the welfare of farm animals at markets, during transport, or at slaughter. The projects will be relatively small, due to their short duration

Where can the project be carried out?

Projects may be carried out anywhere in the world. If the location of the project is not at the university/institute where the student/trainee is enrolled/working, then confirmation is needed from the study host.

What is the size and duration of the Scholarship?

Student Scholarships consist of £350 per week subsistence allowance for the Scholar (paid to the student/trainee directly) and £100 per week project expenses (paid to the host university/organisation).

Although typically completed during July-September, projects may be carried out at any time during the 2025 year, and usually last 4 to 8 weeks. Support is provided for up to 8 weeks, to a maximum of £3600 (although projects themselves may be longer than this).

How is the funding supplied?

Payments are normally made by cheque in GBP Sterling to applicants residing in the United Kingdom (UK) and by bank transfer to applicants outside of the UK.

Please note that sometimes for reasons beyond its control, such as international sanctions, the HSA may not be able to make certain awards. 

What is expected of the Student/Trainee Scholar?

Scholars are asked to report on their project once completed, and to present their research findings at the Annual Scholars Meeting held online – usually in December or January. We aim for the meeting to be relatively small, as for many it will be their first public scientific presentation, and a safe atmosphere is aimed for.  

Closing Date

The deadline for applications is 28 February 2025. 

The HSA aims to inform successful candidate(s) by the end of April 2025, with a view to projects being carried out during 2024.

 

 

Please read the Terms and Conditions for HSA Student/Trainee Scholarships

 

Summary:

Please provide a brief description of your project. Please focus on the aim of the project, the animal welfare issue that you will be investigating, and how you hope your results will impact, or lead to improvements to, the welfare of animals.

Detailed project proposal: 
Please describe your project proposal, using up to 1000 words, and upload the document below. 

THIS is what you should include in the 1,000 words:

Firstly, you (the student) should write this, but you can of course ask for assistance from your supervisor where necessary.

Secondly, it is important to outline how you plan to assess or improve animal welfare through the use of science.

When describing your project, please include information on:

1. Background of your project and why the area is important for animal welfare;
2. Aims of the project, and how your results would benefit animal welfare
3. Methods and project protocol (animals involved, measures taken, presentation of data)

Where animals are used in a project, please provide in section 3. any relevant information on the animals themselves (such as species, breed/strain, sex, weight/age), their housing/feeding (such as cage/enclosure type and size, floor type, number of animals per cage, diet, feeding regime), the experimental design (methodology, numbers in test and control groups, perhaps statistical methods to be used in analysis of the results), and any experimental procedures (if relevant) that may be a risk to animal welfare (nature and duration), measures to improve the animals’ welfare and, where relevant, analgesia and methods of euthanasia/killing.

We are aware that 1,000 words is not a lot, but try to use them well, i.e. on the information of importance for the reader to understand your project, its aims, and the animal welfare impact. 

If your project description 1. to 3. is longer than 1000 words, then any extra will not be included when reviewing your project.

A short list of scientific articles (References) of relevance for the project and cited in the project proposal can be uploaded in a separate section below.

We would like to use your contact details to communicate with you with news and information about UFAW and ways to support us.

Please choose how you'd like us to contact you:

Thank you for completing an HSA Student/Trainee Scholarships application form.

Once you press 'Submit', a copy of your application form will automatically be sent to the 'Student/Trainee primary email' address provided within 'Student/Trainee details'. 

All applications will be reviewed following the closing date, 28 February 2024.

The HSA aims to inform applicants about the outcome of their application by the end of April 2024.

 

If your application is successful, we will require confirmation from your supervisor(s) that they are willing to supervise you for the duration of your project.

If all, or part, of your project is to be carried out at a location other than your current place of study, we will also require confirmation from the host location(s) that you have permission to undertake your project there.