Leverhulme Trust

The Leverhulme Trust, established in 1925, advances knowledge through bold academic research and education, rooted in a philanthropic legacy of social and community advancement. Its core values champion originality, intellectual risk-taking, interdisciplinary breakthroughs, and academic excellence, nurturing transformative ideas that challenge disciplinary boundaries. Funding decisions prioritize investigator-led innovation, enabling outstanding researchers to pursue speculative projects with long-term scholarly and societal impact, fostering individual talent, capacity building, and global intellectual leadership across all career stages.

It supports fundamental and applied research across sciences, humanities, and social sciences, including climate science investigations, cancer therapy development, artificial intelligence studies, behavioural economics, linguistics, history, archaeology, and creative writing in fine and performing arts. Key activities encompass research project grants for team and individual endeavours, early career fellowships and senior research fellowships for emergent leaders, doctoral scholarships and postdoctoral training to cultivate future scholars, visiting professorships for knowledge exchange, international study abroad studentships strengthening global collaborations, and professional development schemes bridging pure and applied scholarship. Beneficiaries include early career researchers, doctoral candidates, experienced academics, and research-active higher education institutions pursuing inclusive education initiatives, innovative health research, environmental solutions, and culturally enriching arts programs, yielding broader academic advancements and indirect societal benefits through evidence-based discovery.

Exclusions encompass routine institutional costs, capital projects, commercial ventures, and direct clinical service provision, focusing solely on research and training. Distinctive priorities favour UK-based academics and institutions with ambitious, interdisciplinary visions, emphasizing independence from policy-driven agendas, support for high-risk ideas overlooked by conventional funders, and international exchanges enhancing the UK's research profile. Ideal partners demonstrate intellectual adventurousness, creative ambition, and potential for transformative impact in scholarly communities.