The Society operates a peer-reviewed scheme to award a number of grants to its members. Grants of up to €550 in support of musicological research and grants of up to €300 in support of conference presentations (national or international and with or without travel) may be awarded to postgraduate research students, non-affiliated scholars or academics without recourse to institutional funds. The SMI reserves the right to limit the number of grants awarded and/or to award smaller sums, depending on budgetary restraints. 

Eligibility: 
To qualify for consideration, applicants must be in good standing with the Society and have been a member for a minimum of six months at the point of application. Applications for grants must be made at least two months in advance of the research activity or conference concerned. Grants are payable to successful applicants on production of receipts as detailed below, after the research or presentation has been completed.

Applications (and any queries about the scheme) may be made by email to the Chair of the SMI Grants Committee, Dr Barbara Dignam (Dublin City University), mail barbara.dignam@dcu.ie

Applications should include:

  • a short CV;
  • a brief description of the proposed research and its intended purpose;
  • a proposed budget;
  • (if applicable) an account of awards received or applied for in connection with the project;
  • a copy of a short letter of support from a supervisor or other appropriate academic colleague.

Recipients are expected to acknowledge, when publishing or presenting, the assistance of the SMI and submit a short report on the work undertaken to the SMI Grants Committee Chair within 12 months of the allocation of the award. The report may be used in the SMI Newsletter.

Recipients are encouraged to present their findings at an SMI conference.

Payment process: To comply with Irish Revenue charitable status requirements, recipients must submit all relevant receipts to the Hon. Treasurer before the payment of the full grant can be made.

Awarding policy: Eligible members can apply for one of the grants outlined above within the standard membership year (March-March) and cannot be awarded more than two grants within a three-year membership period. (Note, however, that the SMI Research Fellowship and these small grants are independent schemes: there is no bar preventing eligible members from submitting applications under both schemes.) Since grants are awarded to members without recourse to institutional funds, should an awardee’s financial circumstance significantly change before they draw down the awarded amount (e.g. a salaried post, full-time permanent academic contract, full-time post-doctoral research post, etc.) that would allow them access to institutional funding in support of a forthcoming conference presentation or musicological research, the Chair of the SMI Grants Committee should be notified immediately.

Past Recipients

  • James McGlynn (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Return to the Forgotten Forest: Collaborative Scoring Practices and Shaping the Fictional Geography of Kena: Bridge of Spirits (2021)’
  • Didzis Kalniņš (Royal Irish Academy of Music), ‘The Sostenuto Pedal: Perspectives on an Artistic Realisation of a Device’
  • Hannah Millington (Dublin City University), ‘Ethel Smyth’s cantata, The Song of Love, Op. 8 (1888)’
  • Cathal Twomey (Maynooth University/Dublin City University), ‘Second’s Time’s the Charm: The Structure(s) of Four Baroque Ombra Scenes, and Further Evidence for the Influence of Venetian Opera on Marc-Antoine Charpentier’
  • Anika Babel (University College Dublin), ‘Sounding Adaptations: The audio-visualization of Jane Austen’s literary pianos in EMMA (dir. Autumn de Wilde, 2020)’
  • Kevin Boushel (Dublin City University), ‘Approaching Contemporary Irish Choral Repertoire’
  • James McGlynn (University College Cork), ‘“Radiohead’s Impossible Museum: Representing Abstract Musical Phenomena and Ephemeral Listening Experiences in KID A MNESIA EXHIBITION (2021)”’
  • Conor Power (Maynooth University), ‘“The American Process”: Williams and Hymnody’
  • Clare Wilson (Dublin City University), ‘Pedagogical Approaches to Marginalised Art Song: A Caplet Case Study’
  • Fiona Baldwin (University College Dublin), ‘From medieval trash to musical treasure: virtual pandemic encounters with a Marsh’s Library fragment’
  • Jonathan Tobutt (University of Leeds): ‘Reconciling the British virtuoso oboist Leon Goossens’ interpretative ideals with contemporary ideologies in the context of the British musical renaissance and the historically-informed performance practices of the early twentieth century’
  • Teresa O’Donnell (Independent): ‘French Connections: The Percy French Archive’
  • Emma Higgins (National University of Ireland, Maynooth): ‘The Mezzo-Soprano Onstage and Offstage: A Cultural History of the Voice-Type, Singers and Roles in Paris, 1870-1918’
  • Conor Ward (Dundalk Institute of Technology): ‘An examination of folk music manuscripts dating from the mid-nineteenth century’
  • Cathal Mullan (National University of Ireland, Maynooth): ‘Forgotten Faust Settings by Wagner and his Contemporaries (1832-1840)’
  • Anja Bunzel (National University of Ireland, Maynooth): ‘Johanna Kinkel’s social life in Berlin from 1836-1839’
  • Fabian Huss (University of Bristol): 'The Music of Frank Bridge'
  • Emer Nestor (National University of Ireland, Maynooth): ‘Interpreting Byron: Defining ‘the Self’ in ‘the Other’ in Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony’
  • Mary Louise O’Donnell (Independent): ‘The Irish Harp Society of Belfast (1819-1839)’
  • Liam Cagney (City University of London): ‘The Evolution of French Spectral Music, 1972-1982’
  • Tríona O’Hanlon (DIT): ‘The Mercer’s Hospital Music Collection: An analysis of eighteenth-century Handelian sources extant in Trinity College, Dublin’
  • Áine Mangaoang (University of Liverpool): Beyond MTV: Popular Music, YouTube, and the construction of identity in postcolonial Philippines
  • Catherine Ferris (DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama): The Dublin Music Trade
  • John McGrath (University of Liverpool): The Theoretical Relationship between Words and Music
  • Barbara Strahan (NUI Maynooth): Schubert's Fantasia Genre
  • Majella Boland (UCD): The Reception of the Piano Concerti of John Field
  • Adrienne Brown (UCD): Self, the Now, and the Art Object in Music and Dance
  • Helen Tipper (MIC,UL): Alphabet Class Sets in the Music of Anton Webern
  • Fiona Smyth (UCD): Music in Light of Space: Establishing Context for early 20th-Century Writings on Musicology and Acoustics
  • Barbara Dignam (NUI Maynooth): Electroacoustic Music in Ireland: Exploring Roger Doyle's Babel
  • Daniela Kulezic-Wilson (Independent Scholar): Musical Aspects of Peter Strickland's Film Katalin Varga
  • Johanne Heraty (UCD): Ezra Sims, Im Mirabell & Microtonality
  • Jessica Cawley (UCC): The Learning Process and Musical Enculturation of Irish Traditional Musicians
  • Ann Marie Hanlon (Newcastle University): Eric Satie and the New Canon: Criticism, Reception, Analysis (1911-1925)
  • Estelle Murphy: The Changing Role of Music at Court in the Late-Stuart Period
  • Serena Standley: Fashioning a Count: Mario Bevilacqua as Patron and the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona
  • Una Hunt (Dublin): Thomas Moore and his Irish Melodies
  • Helen Lyons (UCD): Contemporary Irish Harping on the Irish Harp and 'Cruit'
  • Aisling Kenny (NUI Maynooth): The Lieder of Josephine Lang (1815-1880)
  • Angela Buckley (WIT): A Critical Edition of the Irish Music Manuscripts of Philip Carolan (c.1839-1910)
  • Angela Moran (UCD): Filmic Representations of Carmen
  • Fabian Huss (Bristol): The Chamber Music of Frank Bridge
  • Aoife Granville (UCC): Shaping Community Identity through Festivalisation: An Exploration of the Importance and Influence of the Wren Tradition in Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Kerry
  • Alison Dunlop (QUB): The Music Manuscripts of Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770)
  • Ann-Marie Hanlon (Newcastle University): Satie and The New Canon: Criticism, Reception, Analysis (1911-1925)
  • Aoife Ní Drisceoil (MU): Presence and Spectatorship in Mediatised Opera
  • Sarah Busfield (TCD): Musical Representation of Death on the Shakespearean Stage (presentation at an international conference)
  • Liam Cagney (independent scholar): Spectralist Composer Tristan Murail
  • David Rhodes (independent scholar): Eighteenth-century Dublin Royal Court Odes
  • Maria Byrne (MU): Harry Hardy and The Royal Irish Constabulary Band (presentation at an international conference)
  • Damian Evans (DIT): to undertake research at the British National Jazz Archives for a postdoctoral project on Irish jazz in both its contemporaneous and historical settings
  • Judith Wiemers (QUB): American Motifs in the Operettas of Paul Abraham (conference presentation at the RMA Twentieth-Century Operetta Study Day)