What it is, how AYRS will use it, and how you can apply for a grant
In April 2005, Mr Donald Howard, a member of AYRS, died, and having no family, left his estate to be divided amongst a number of charities, one of which was, to our surprise, the Amateur Yacht Research Society. Of his residual estate, we were left 30%, some £42000, with the instruction that the Committee use the money to provide funds as grants to members for further development of their practical ideas.
Having thought about it long and hard, the Committee have decided that we will do this in the following way.
How will we distribute the money?
In principle, we could give it all in one hit, but we think it would be more use if we made the money last over a number of years. Firstly, this will allow us to earn interest on the capital, which we can add to the fund; secondly, it will allow people time to think about what they need and when. So we have decided that we will distribute about £5000 each year, which means we can go on for about nine years. This will usually be a number of small awards.
Note: Only paid-up members of AYRS are eligible.
We have also decided that the projects to which we give grants:
a) have to be practical (as Mr Howard required);
b) they have to further nautical science or knowledge of nautical science (to be in keeping with the objectives of AYRS); and
c) that grants will be awarded on merit and according to need, after review by the Committee and any panel of experts they may appoint.
Needless to say, neither the members of the Committee nor their family and close associates, nor anyone else involved with the decision process will be eligible to apply.
How to apply
Applications for grants should preferably be in writing, and will need to be submitted by a given date each year. This date will normally be 1st December, for awards the following year.
Applications need to include:
- Name and address of the applicant, executive summary of the application, etc
- Details of the project, (suitable for publication), containing
- A description of the project as a whole
- Its contribution to nautical science (this may be the most important bit)
- Progress so far
- What the money requested will achieve (probably the second most important bit).
Applications will need to be sent to:
Hon Secretary,
Amateur Yacht Research Society,
BCM AYRS,
London WC1N 3XX, UK,
You can also send it by email, to <office@ayrs.org>, preferably as a PDF file.
Further guidance on making applications will be found on this website at https://www.ayrs.org/PDFs/Howard_Fund_guidance.pdf