The purpose of the Assessment Research Awards is to assist doctoral-level research students (Ph.D./Ed.D.) in the field of language testing and assessment in data collection and analysis for their Ph.D/Ed.D. project. 

The application should be completed by the research student and their academic supervisor, and should include details of how the Award will contribute to the completion of the student’s work., There will be up to two awards in 2026 to a maximum value of £2,500 per Award. Projects will generally be 12 months in duration. Applicants do not need to have submitted their thesis by the end of the Award. 

Proposals must be submitted to this form: Research Assessment Awards Submission Form – Fill in form 

Please note a PDF of the form can be viewed at the bottom of this page. We recommend that you complete your responses on a locally-saved file before entering them into the form as you will not be able to save these and return to the form. 

Key dates for the Assessment Research Awards 2026 

September 2026  Call for proposals 
2 October 2026  Applications close (midnight GMT+1) 
October 2026  Preliminary review of applications 
November 2026  Evaluation and selection 
23 November 2026  Notification of decisions to applicants 
December 2026 – February 2027  Drawing up and signing of contracts 
29 March 2027  Project start (see below) 

 


Project timeline

1. Award start

We are assuming and working towards a project start date of 29 March 2027, however this will be subject to the completion of administrative processes, including the signing of a Grants contract between the British Council and the individual. 

A 50% payment of the full Award amount will be made at the start of the project timeline. 

2. Interim meeting

This will be midway through the award and will provide an update to members of English Language Research and Impact at the British Council. 

3. Final presentation to the Research Exchange 

At the end of your award, you will make a presentation in the ELRI’s Research Exchange. The Research Exchange is an online forum where research from ELRI, grant and award holders, and other partners with an interest in academic research is shared. This will be arranged on a date convenient for the awardees.  

The remaining 50% of the award will be paid on completion of the final presentation. 

Evaluation criteria

Proposals submitted for an Assessment Research Award will be anonymised and reviewed by members of the British Council English Language Research & Impact. The decision of the reviewers will be final. 

The following criteria will be used to review: 

  • The research project is contextualised and clearly presented. 
  • The research project contributes to the field of language testing and assessment. 
  • Preference will be given to studies that support British Council’s work and products. 
  • The research project does present any conflict of interest for the British Council. 
  • The budget is clearly justified, and represents value for money. 
  • The budgeted items are not supported by any other funding. 
  • The applicant has not had a previous Assessment Research Award. 

We regret that we are not able to fund: 

  • Travel to conferences 
  • Activity that has taken place prior to March 2027 
  • Maintenance costs 
  • University fees 
  • Large and expensive items such as PCs or printers 

Previous recipients of an Assessment Research Award

  • Xiaoxiao Kong (University of Melbourne) - Exploring the Language and Communication Demands of Early Childhood and School Teachers in Australia: Implications for Language Assessment for Teacher Registration
  • Jamie Lesley (University of Bedfordshire (CRELLA)) - The Impact of English Medium Instruction on Learners' Spoken Language Development in a Japanese University Context
  • Maggie-Pu Pu (University of Bristol) - Learning L2 vocabulary from multimodal reading input: an eye-tracking study
  • Sebnem Kurt (Iowa State University) - Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Environment for the Oral English Certification Test
  • Meng-Hsun Lee (University of Toronto) - A Mixed-Methods Investigation into Raters' Assessments of Prosodic Features
  • Katherine Halley (University of Bedfordshire, (CRELLA)) - The assessment of embodied resources for interactional competence in multimodal higher education digital EMI classrooms

  • Shengkai Yin (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, supervisors Yan Jin and Jason Fan) 
  • In Ji Chun (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA, supervisor Dustin Crowther)
  • Shishi Zhang (University College London, UK, supervisor Talia Isaacs)
  • Shireen Baghestani (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Carol Chapelle)
  • Haeun Kim (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Carol Chapelle)
  • Jieun Kim (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA, supervisor Daniel Isbel)
  • Leyla Karatay (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Gary Ockey)

  • Sin Wang Chong (University College London, UK, supervisor Talia Isaacs)
  • Ananda Astrini Muhammad (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Gary Ockey)
  • Dung (Davy) Tran (The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA, supervisor Becky Huang)
  • Gulnahar Begum (Queen’s University Belfast, UK, supervisor Aisling O’Boyle)
  • Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Gary Ockey)
  • Xian Li (Georgia State University, USA, supervisor Sara Cushing)

  • Camilo Ramos Gálvez (Lancaster University, UK, supervisor Tineke Brunfaut)
  • Hitoshi Nishizawa (University of Hawaii, USA, supervisor Daniel Isbell)
  • Natalia de Andrade Raymundo (University of Campinas, Brazil, supervisor Matilde Virgínia Ricardi Scaramucci)
  • Sharon Sin Ying Wong (University of Bristol, UK, supervisor Guoxing Yu)
  • Yena Park (Indiana University, USA, supervisor Sun-Young Shin)
  • John Dylan Burton (Michigan State University, USA, supervisor Paula Winke)
  • Nazlinur Göktürk Tüney (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Carol A.Chapelle)

  • David Wei Dai (University of Melbourne, Australia, supervisor A Prof Carsten Roever)
  • Lizbeth Morales Berlanga (University of Southampton, UK, supervisor Dr Ying Zheng) 
  • Friederike Sell (University of Bonn, Germany, supervisor Prof. Dr. Klaus P. Schneider)
  • Ji-young Shin (Purdue University, USA, supervisor Professor April Ginther)
  • Pakize Uludag (Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, supervisor Prof Kim McDonough)
  • Santi Budi Lestari (Lancaster University, UK, supervisor Dr Tineke BrunFaut)
  • Sha Liu (School of Education, University of Bristol, UK, supervisor Guoxing Yu)
  • Thuy Ha Lam Thai (University of Huddersfield, UK, supervisor Susan Sheehan)

  • Glyn Jones (Lancaster University, UK, supervisor Dr Luke Harding)
  • Roman O. Lesnov (Northern Arizona University, USA, supervisor Professor Joan M Jamieson)
  • Olena Rossi (Lancaster University, UK, supervisor Dr Tineke Brunfaut)
  • Sonca Vo  (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Professor Gary Ockey)
  • Jorge Luis Beltran Zuniga (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, supervisor Professor James E Purpura

  • Alun Evan Meredydd Roger (CRELLA, University of Bedfordshire, supervisor Dr. Fumiyo Nakatsuhara)
  • Carolyn Westbrook (CRELLA, University of Bedfordshire, supervisor Professor Anthony Green)
  • Qie Han (Teachers’ College, Columbia University, supervisor Professor James E. Purpura)
  • Salomé Villa Larenas (Lancaster University, supervisor Dr. Tineke Brunfaut)

  • Maria Georgina Fernandez Sesma (University of Southampton,UK,supervisor Dr Ying Zheng)
  • Iftikhar Haider (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,USA, supervisors Professor Emeritus Fred Davidson & Professor Melissa Bowles)
  • Benjamin Kremmel (University of Nottingham, UK, supervisor Professor Norbert Schmitt)
  • Suh Keong Kwon (University of Bristol, UK, supervisor Dr Guoxing Yu)
  • Heidi Han-Ting Liu (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, supervisor Professor James E. Purpura)
  • Yueting Xu (The University of Hong Kong, SARPRC, supervisor Professor David R. Carless)

  • Tanzeela Anbreen (University of Bedfordshire, UK, supervisor Professor Stephen Bax).
  • Tony Clark (University of Bristol, UK, supervisors Dr Guoxing Yu and Dr Talia Asaacs).
  • Lin Fang (University of Bristol, UK, supervisor Dr Guoxing Yu).
  • Edit Ficzere (University of Bedfordshire, UK, supervisor Dr Fumiyo Nakatsuhara).
  • Elsa Gonzalez (University of Southampton, UK, supervisor Dr Ying Zheng).
  • Mikako Nishikawa, (University of Bristol, UK, supervisor Dr Guoxing Yu).
  • Saerhim Oh (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, supervisor Professor Jim Purpura).
  • Victor Santos (Iowa State University, USA, supervisor Professor Carol A. Chapelle).
  • Linxiao Wang (Northern Arizona University, USA, supervisor Dr Okim Kang).

 
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