The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust

The Trust and its contact details

The Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (CWPT), established in 1981, is a registered United Kingdom Charity  (No. 283337).  The Trust was originally administered by the British Council, and is now run independently, though the British Council remains a trustee and provides support of various kinds in the United Kingdom and in Pakistan.   The Trust is managed day-to-day by a Secretary who reports to a Board of Trustees:

Dr David Taylor (Chair)
Mr Peter Elborn (pro British Council)
Professor Sarah Ansari
Professor Yunas Samad
Dr Farzana Shaikh
Mr David Martin
Representative of the Pakistan High Commission
Tim Butchard (Secretary)

Contact details:
Tim Butchard 
Secretary
Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust
4, Dorville Crescent
London W6 0HJ
+44 (0)20 8741 0836
timbutchard@wallace-trusts.org.uk 

Activities of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust

CWPT’s trustees have the authority to use the income from the Trust’s funds to benefit Pakistanis who are normally resident in Pakistan by enabling them to advance their professional development  or doctoral studies in the United Kingdom in ways specified below.  Administrative  costs are kept to a minimum, and over 90% of CWPT’s investment income is spent on the Trust’s educational work.  This consists of four separate programmes:

• Doctoral Bursaries
• Reserved Visiting Fellowships
• Open Visiting Fellowships
• Visiting Artists

Please note that there is no provision for Bachelors or Masters degree students.
The Trust is firmly committed to equal opportunities in all its activities.

 Doctoral Bursaries

Twice a year, in late May and late November, awards are granted to doctoral students in certain disciplines from Pakistan who are already in the UK and who are normally in their final year, or anticipating the final year, of their PhDs, and who need additional funding to help them complete their studies.  The Trust is not primarily a hardship fund and all applicants are required to demonstrate academic excellence as well as financial need.   Our maximum grant is normally £1,000 , so applicants must have  funds from other sources to cater for most of their needs.  The disciplines eligible for support are restricted to the following:

• The humanities, arts, and creative industries
• The social sciences and social development
• The life sciences including medicine.

How and when to apply

Applicants must complete CWPT’s Application Form and submit it as an e-mail attachment to the Secretary of the Trust (see above for contact details).  The application should be accompanied, also in the form of an on-line attachment, by a supporting letter on headed paper from the applicant’s supervisor.  Other documents testifying to the applicant’s background and achievements to date should be kept to a minimum but a short CV of not more than two pages is welcome.  Applicants should not normally apply more than 15 months ahead of their expected completion date.  The two annual deadlines are the end of the first week in  May and the end of the first week in November.  Applicants will be informed of their success or otherwise soon after the trustees’ meetings in late May and late November.

 Reserved Visiting Fellowships

What are they?

Charles Wallace Reserved Visiting Fellowships are funded by the Trust but offered by the CWPT’s UK partners, such as Oxford University (see below).  The fellowships enable Pakistani academics and professionals to undertake short working visits to these institutions with the aim of broadening their professional knowledge, skills and contacts.  The content of a fellowship normally takes the form of professional interaction, study and research.  The duration of a fellowship varies from three weeks to a maximum of three months.  An all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,300 is offered by the Trust, together with a contribution towards a return economy air fares and UK visa costs, but there is no provision for course or bench fees.

Partner Institutions in the UK

Pending negotiations with other institutions only one annual Charles Wallace Fellowship is currently reserved for a Pakistani Visiting Fellow at The Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University.  For further information visit their website (www.politics.ox.ac.uk) or contact the Secretary of the Trust (timbutchard@wallace-trusts.org.uk).

Candidate specifications and how to apply

The selection criteria adopted by each partner institution varies and each has its own application requirements.  Common to all is the need for a full curriculum vitae, and a clear statement of what the applicant proposes to achieve during the fellowship period.  In some cases  the focus is on offering research facilities for scholars who have had little or no prior academic experience outside Pakistan.  In others,  the Visiting Fellow is likely to be a mid-career professional who will be expected to participate in high-level interactions with his or her peer group.  In every case, the selection is made by the host institution but must be endorsed by the British Council in Pakistan and by the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust in the UK.

 Open Visiting Fellowships

What are they, and who can qualify?

Charles Wallace Open Visiting Fellowships, offered under a partnership between the British Council in Pakistan and the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust in the United Kingdom, enable Pakistani men and women to undertake short visits to the UK in order to broaden their professional knowledge, skills, and contacts.  Eligible candidates are Pakistani nationals, residing in Pakistan.  They are normally junior or mid-career professionals or academics aged between 30 and 50, working in the following disciplines:

• The humanities, arts, and creative industries
• The social sciences, and social development
• Science for social purposes (but excluding lab-based scientific research).

Up to 12 fellowships are awarded annually.  Candidates who have never travelled abroad for study or professional purposes will have a modest advantage in the selection process.

Content, duration, finance and administration

Visiting fellowships normally take the form of two principal activities: professional familiarization and interaction; and study and research.  The duration of a fellowship varies from three weeks to a maximum of three months.  An all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,300 is offered by the Trust, also a contribution towards a return economy air fare and the costs of a UK visa, but there is no provision for course or bench fees.  Please note that successful candidates must make all their own arrangements in the UK.  The Charles Wallace Trust in London and the British Council in Pakistan are only able to offer very limited administrative and pastoral support.  However, the British Council will advise on visa applications, pay stipends in advance, and offer some pre-departure briefing.

How to apply

Open Fellowships are offered once a year only and are advertised on the website of the British Council in Pakistan in December.  The key preliminary step is that candidates must identify and make contact with a UK-based partner or host institutions, and obtain an invitation letter from them.  Secondly, an application form, downloaded from the website of the British Council in Pakistan (www.britishcouncil.org.pk), must be completed and submitted as instructed in advance of the British Council’s annual deadline in mid-March.  Interviews of short-listed candidates will take place in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in April of each year. Successful candidates must take up their fellowships within 16 months of being selected, that is to say before the end of August of the following year. For further information please contact the British Council’s information desk in Pakistan (info@britishcouncil.org.pk) or e-mail the Secretary of the Trust in London (timbutchard@wallace-trusts.org.uk).

 Visiting Artists

Who are they and how do they qualify?

The Charles Wallace Visiting Artists Programme enables arts practitioners from Pakistan to spend time in the UK on arts residencies or for training and familiarization purposes. Currently, these are mainly drawn from the visual arts, but other art forms, including the creative industries,  also qualify for support.  The duration of stay in the UK can vary from 3 weeks to 3 months, and an all-inclusive monthly stipend of £1,300 will be paid by the Trust, also a contribution towards a return economy air fare and UK visa costs.   There is no provision for course or bench fees.  Most UK arts institutions find it difficult to provide facilities for visiting artists so this is inevitably a small programme.

Current UK institutions offering facilities to CWPT

The Trust has a relationship with two UK institutions who are willing to receive an annual Visiting Artist from Pakistan:

• The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, affiliated to the University of Wales (www.psta.org.uk).  Under a partnership between the Prince’s School in London and the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, a Pakistani artist or craftsperson is invited to spend a term working at the School in London each year.  Fees are waived by the School and living expenses are met by CWPT. Those interested in applying should approach the Principal of NCA in Lahore.
• Gasworks (www.gasworks.org.uk), the London arts centre, offers an arts residency to a Pakistani contemporary artist each year.  Gasworks is affiliated to the Triangle Arts Trust (www.trianglearts.org), an international network of artists and arts organizations, of which VASL (www.vaslart.org)  in Pakistan is an active member.  The annual Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust and Rangoonwala Residency at Gasworks is described on these sites, including details of the terms and conditions, and how to apply. Normally VASL advertises the award and submits a group of applicants to Gasworks who lead the selection process.

Individual applications

Apart from the partnerships described above, it is also open to individual arts practitioners from Pakistan to make their own arrangements with a host institution in the UK and apply direct to the Trust’s Secretary for support under this programme.  Funds are very limited so ‘open’ applications must be outstanding in quality.  The Secretary’s contact details are shown above. 

For More Details:

http://www.wallace-trusts.org.uk/cwt_pakistan.html