Grants and Awards

• SHAC grants: 

Applications are open for grants to support attendance at 15ICHC in Bologna, Italy, 8-12 June 2027

Applicants are invited to apply for grants from the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) to support attendance of early-career scholars and independent scholars at the 15th International Conference on the History of Chemistry (15ICHC) in Bologna, Italy between 8 June and 12 June 2027.

Awards of up to £400 will be made as a contribution towards the cost of travel, accommodation, and registration fees for those giving a paper at the conference.

SHAC has the expectation that awardees attend the whole conference, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Application for grants deadline: 21 February 2027

Applicants must be members of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry in good standing at the time of making an application and if successful through the period of the award.

For more information and application forms please contact grants@ambix.org stating that you are applying for a grant to attend 15ICHC.

Membership enquiries should be made to newjoiner@ambix.org

Details of how to join the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry can be found at https://www.ambix.org/subscription/

• CHCMS Early Career Lecture Award – Call for Applications:

The Commission on the History of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (CHCMS)

The Commission on the History of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (CHCMS) is one of the historical commissions of the Division for the History of Science and Technology (https://dhstweb.org/structure/historical-commissions) of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST).

In 1997, the Commission was founded as the Commission on the History of Modern Chemistry, an organization that supported and promoted research on the history of modern chemistry with particular emphasis on twentieth-century chemistry. In 2017, the Commission changed its name and expanded its purview to the molecular sciences, broadly construed, including areas of interest such as materials sciences, life sciences and environmental sciences. It also expanded its temporal scope to periods other than the twentieth century.

The CHCMS Early Career Lecture Award

One of the missions of the CHCMS is the support and the fostering of a younger generation of scholars in the field of the history of chemical and molecular sciences and technologies. 

To that aim, the CHCMS is setting up a “CHCMS Early Career Lecture” award to highlight original work, innovative methods, and new perspectives in the field. The Lecture will be given at the biennial International Conferences on the History of Chemistry (ICHCs). 

For the 2027 edition, the awardee will be invited as guest at the 15ICHC (https://sites.google.com/view/ichc2027-bologna/home) which is taking place in Bologna, Italy, on 8-12 June 2027. The awardee will also commit to an interview to be shared through the CHCMS YouTube channel(https://www.youtube.com/@CHCMS).

Criteria: who is considered an early career scholar?

The applicants must have obtained their PhD within the last 10 years and be aged 40 or less by the time of the application. The relevance of these criteria under special circumstances (such as parental leave or change of career, for instance) will be left to the discretion of the selection committee.

Selection procedure

The application should include a research statement (of ca. 1,000 words) making the case for the applicant’s work in the context of the present and future state of the field, a full CV, and copies of their three most important publications. Applicants are also required to arrange one letter (email) of recommendation to be sent under separate cover. In particular, applicants should clearly argue in their research statement how their work and publications are bringing new insights, using original methodologies, or providing fresh approaches and novel perspectives in the field of history of chemistry and the molecular sciences. 

Applications and letters of recommendation should be sent electronically to Yoshiyuki Kikuchi (ykikuchi@for.aichi-pu.ac.jp) no later than 30 December 2026 (UTC). The CHCMS Early Career Lecturer will be announced in February 2027.