The IDS gives grants and bursaries in support of its declared aims: to promote the study and enjoyment of trees and other woody plants, to bring together dendrologists from all round the world, and to protect and conserve rare and endangered plant species worldwide.
The most important ongoing project is the creation of what has become known as IDS Trees and Shrubs Online, a resource freely available to all.
GRANTS: In recent years we have also contributed to a wide range of researches: studying magnolias for urban planting; helping towards an ex-situ conservation project in Madagascar; an MA student researching plant hunting for commercial horticulture; to an international symposium on maples; and a lecturer from Sri Lanka was funded to attend a BGCI conference in Ireland. All of these are reported on in our Yearbook. We also supported various publications including a book on the plant hunter Robert Fortune; another on Joseph Hooker; a Field Guide to Argentinian flora; and to a Flora of Golestan, Iran. We do not as a general rule offer grants to individuals for further education.
TRAVEL BURSARIES: We have given bursaries to a number of young dendrologists so they could join IDS tours: to the Czech Republic; to Hungary; to New Caledonia; to Poland; and to West Yunnan, amongst others. The bursary recipients undertake to write a report of their travels, published in the Yearbook.
In 2025 applicants were offered a choice of destination in UK, Sicily, Montenegro, China and Arunachal Pradesh. Though the applications are now closed, further information is available here.
FUNDING: Part of the funding for travel bursaries and other grants comes from generous committed multi-year donations from IDS members who feel passionately about up and coming horticulturalists and botanists having the opportunity to see trees and woody plants in the wild or in a very different environment to their own. If discussing making donations would be of interest, please contact us.
If you are seeking funding for a project that might accord with our declared interests, forms for application can be found here [institution] [individual]
