OPEN CALL:2021 Norman Foster Foundation Travelling Scholarship

00“As a student, I won a prize that allowed me to spend a summer travelling through Europe and to study first-hand buildings and cities that I knew only from the pages of books. It was a revelation – liberating and exhilarating in so many ways.

Today, it is the privilege of the Norman Foster Foundation to support the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship, which I hope will have a lasting legacy – offering the chance for discovery and the inspiration for exciting new work – for generations to come.” Lord Foster

The RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship offers £7,000 to a student of architecture who demonstrates the potential for outstanding achievement and original thinking on issues that relate to the sustainable survival of cities and towns.

In 2021, in response to the global restrictions on travel put in place to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, applications will be accepted for national research proposals as well as international research proposals. Therefore, students may submit a proposal for research on a topic in their home country or at (an) international location(s).

Both national and international research proposals should relate to the sustainable survival of our cities and towns and fall under one of the following themes:

  • Learning from the past to inform the future
  • The future of society
  • Density of settlements
  • Use of resources
  • Quality of urban life
  • Transport

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply, students must be enrolled in, and have successfully completed at least the first year of a professional qualification in architecture from a school invited by the RIBA.

Each invited school can submit one application only for the scholarship from one of its current students, and each school chooses its own method of selecting its student.

See the list of schools invited by the RIBA.

How to apply

Once selected by your school, students will need to submit the following:

  • one completed application form signed by the student and by the Head of School
  • one A1 ‘poster’ presented as a pdf file detailing the proposal (topic, objective, locations). Applicants are restricted to 500 words on the poster submission, and images should be high-resolution.

Full details of the application process can be found in the guidance notes at the beginning of the application form.

Completed applications (including the application form and A1 ‘poster’) must be submitted via a web-based file transfer service (such as WeTransfer) to Gillian.Harrison@riba.org by the deadline of 5pm (GMT) on Friday 28 May 2021.

Applications received after this time will not be accepted.

The beginning of the period of travel for the successful applicant will be subject to the respective government’s confirmation that the travel specified may be safely undertaken. Prior to travel, the successful applicant will be required to complete a health risk assessment which meets the approval of the RIBA and the Norman Foster Foundation.