RSA Early Career Grant Scheme
We are very pleased to announce the new Early Career Grant holders for the 2025 round. Congratulations to Conor O’Driscoll and Xuanyi Maxwell Nie. Read below to find out more about them and their projects.
Project title: Stuck in Place: Unpacking Residential Immobility in the UK
Dr. Conor O’Driscoll is an Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Groningen’s Faculty of Spatial Science. Conor holds a PhD in Economics from University College Cork, Ireland, where he studied the determinants of travel behaviour, with particular attention to the relationship between where we live and how we travel, as well as the environmental and economic consequences of prevailing travel patterns. Conor’s research now centres around the issue of locational mobility, examining issues like remote work, labour market outcomes, internal migration, and travel behaviours.
Conor said:
“I am honoured to have received the RSA early career grant for a project that combines many of my research interests. This project will allow me to examine what it means to be stuck in place across the UK. In doing so, I hope to contribute to broader discussions around regional and labour market policy, leading to new collaborations within the RSA network and the wider academic community.”
Xuanyi Nie, School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo
Project title: Territorializing Care: Hospital Consolidation and Neighborhood Inequality in the United States
Xuanyi Nie is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His research examines how healthcare and civic infrastructures operate as spatial and institutional actors, shaping regional inequalities and everyday life across the United States, China, and Southeast Asia. His work bridges regional studies, urban planning, and institutional analysis, with a focus on healthcare systems, territorial governance, and spatial justice.
Xuanyi says:
Receiving the RSA Early Career Research Grant is a tremendous encouragement at this stage of my career. It is both an honor and a support. The award enables me to advance research on how healthcare institutions shape regional inequalities. I am grateful to the RSA for supporting my project and look forward to engaging with the RSA community as this research progresses.
RSA MeRSA Grant Scheme
We are very pleased to announce the new MeRSA Grant holders for the 2025 round. Congratulations to Diya Mehra and Yunpeng Zhang. Read below to find out more about them and their projects.
Project title: Modes of Regulation: Tourism, Urbanisation and Infrastructure in the Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India
Diya Mehra is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, her research focuses on the historical and contemporary urbanization of metropolitan cities in India, metropolitan urban governance, the contemporary urbanisation of small Indian towns and their rural hinterlands, particularly in mountain environments, and in the context of climate change . Her writing has been published in leading academic journals, and in numerous edited volumes. She is currently the co-editor of the journal Society and Culture in South Asia.
Diya says:
“I’m thrilled and grateful to the RSA for awarding me a research grant under the RSA’s membership research grant scheme. As someone deeply invested in regional and spatial studies, I welcome the opportunity to pursue my research on the regulation of tourism driven urbanisation in India’s Western Himalayas, given increasing externalities, and climate change in this region. I also look forward to sharing my work with the wider body of RSA members and other stakeholders alike, at a time when debates about appropriate regulation are growing.”
Project title: Powering Development? Solar Energy, Poverty Alleviation and Just Transition in Rural China
Yunpeng Zhang is an Assistant Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. His research interests lie at the intersection of social geography, political economy and development studies, with a focus on urbanisation, displacements, land politics, rural development and statecraft.
“I am honoured to be awarded one of the MeRSA grants! The funding will support my research on the energy-poverty nexus, which explores the linkages between energy transitions, poverty alleviation, rural development, and the role of the state. I hope the findings will contribute to broader discussions on just transitions, inclusive development, and rural governance.”
RSA FeRSA Grant Scheme
Project title: Explaining the fiscal crisis of the local state: understanding local government ‘bankruptcies’ in England since 2018
Andy Pike is the Henry Daysh Professor of Regional Development Studies in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University, UK. His research interests, publications and research projects are focused on the geographical political economy of local, regional and urban development and policy. He has undertaken research projects for the OECD, UN-ILO, European Commission, UK Government and national, regional and local institutions. He is a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association and the UK’s national Academy of Social Sciences.
Andy says:
“Many thanks to the RSA for the award of this grant. The RSA has played a formative and integral role throughout my career and it is an honour to receive their support. The research will examine why local councils are going ‘bankrupt’ in England and what can be done about it.”
Application Deadlines (Expression of Interest): 3rd March 2026
Early Career Research Grant Scheme
This award is open to individual applicants in their early career (five years maximum between the date showing on their PhD certificate and the application deadline). Applicants must be based within an eligible higher education institution and must be a current, early career member of the RSA and throughout the duration of the grant (please note that applicants may apply for membership at the same time as applying for the grant).
The RSA Early Career Research Grant (EC) is provided to support a discrete piece of regional studies and/or regional science research.
The value of the grant is up to £11,000 (c. $13,300; c. €11,800). The grant has a maximum time span of 18 months and reporting conditions apply. The full Terms and Conditions governing the grant are available in the EC Handbook.
RSA Membership Research Grant Scheme (MeRSA)
This grant aims to reward excellence and support outstanding individual researchers on a topic related to regional studies and regional science. It is intended primarily to provide opportunities for scholars who have already published in the field of regional studies and/or regional science and who are currently Individual members of the RSA. The value of the award is up to £5,500 (c. $7,300; c. €6,200). The award has a maximum time span of 18 months and reporting conditions apply. The full Terms and Conditions governing the grant are available in the MeRSA-Handbook
RSA Fellowship Research Grant Scheme (FeRSA)
The RSA Fellowship Research Grants (FeRSA) are provided to support a discrete piece of regional studies and/or regional science research. The value of the award is up to £8,250 (c. $10,900; c. €9,400). The award has a maximum time span of 18 months and reporting conditions apply. The full terms, application guidelines and conditions governing the grant are available in the FeRSA-Handbook