What We Fund
The Foundation’s aim is to develop good relations between the United Kingdom and Japan by advancing the education of the people of both nations in each other’s culture, society and achievements. It seeks to promote mutual understanding and cooperation through financial support for activities in the following fields:
• Arts and Culture
• Humanities and Social Issues
• Japanese Language
• Medicine and Health
• Science, Technology and Environment
• Sport
• Youth and Education
Whilst encouraging applications in each of the above fields, the Foundation particularly wishes to support activities/projects in science and technology; medicine and health; environment and social issues; Japanese studies; and in the Japanese language.
The Foundation’s awards are intended to provide “pump-priming” and not core funding of projects, but even small grants have enabled a wide range of projects to reach fruition, such as:
• Visits between the UK and Japan by academics, professionals, creative artists, teachers, young people, journalists and representatives of civic and non-governmental organisations
• Research and collaborative studies, seminars, workshops, lectures and publications in academic and specialist fields
• Teaching and development of Japanese language and cultural studies in schools, Further Education colleges and universities
• Exhibitions, performances and creative productions by artists, musicians, film-makers, writers and theatre groups
Our Awards
Our UK office holds three annual awards meetings, with application deadlines on 31st March, 15th September and 15th December for consideration by our Trustees in May, November and March respectively.
Our Japan office also accepts applications originating from Japan, with deadlines at the end of February for a decision in April and the end of September for a decision in October.
Applications are accepted for projects in all the fields listed above. However, grants are not made for consumables, salaries, and materials, rather they are intended to be used towards activity (such as accommodation, travel, subsistence, exchanges, workshops, etc.).
Standard travel grants between the UK and Japan are £2,000, and up to £2,500 for visits of two weeks or more. This also includes travel for PhD students from UK universities wishing to visit Japan for dissertation research or to complete fieldwork. Applications for longer-term fieldwork of six months or more in Japan can be considered, with grants of up to £5,000.
Please note that we do not fund undergraduate or master’s applications and applications for master’s programmes are only funded if nominated by institutions in the Studentship programme.
For PhD students from Japan wishing to travel to the UK for fieldwork or research, grants of up to ¥300,000 are available from the Japan office.
As well as our regular awards, the Butterfield Awards is an annual programme for high-level UK-Japan exchange and collaboration in medicine and health. Any relevant field of medicine and health may be considered, offering a small number of awards of up to £10,000 for a maximum of three years of continuous project funding. Grants are not intended for consumables and clinical costs, but for use towards travel and living expenses, seminars, conferences, workshops, publications, etc. The annual deadline is 15th December for consideration in March the following year.
Please click here for further information on the application procedure for all our awards.
Other Programmes
As well as awarding grants to applications for external projects, we have also initiated our own programmes, which currently include the Japan Experience Study Tour, the Sasakawa Japanese Studies Postgraduate Studentship Programme, and the UK-Japan Global Seminar Series.
For further information on all these programmes, please click the links to take you to the relevant section of the website.