The Sibbald Scholarship

About the project

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is offering one scholarship award of £8000 on behalf of the Heather Fairlie Fund to one eligible offer holder of MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants in the 2027/2028 academic year.

Award

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is offering one scholarship of £8000 to an eligible offer-holder of MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants for September 2027 entry. Offer holders of the 1-year full-time programme who are nationals from countries defined by the DAC List of ODA Recipients will be considered.

This scholarship, on behalf of the Heather Fairlie Fund , is intended to aid highly motivated applicants to study on the programme through a one-time stipend payment which will be awarded to the successful applicant upon enrolment on the programme in September 2027 by the RBGE.

Eligibility

The scholarship will be awarded to one MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants offer holder who has firmly accepted the offer for admission on the programme for September 2027 entry and intends to enrol.

Please only apply for this scholarship if you have already received an offer (conditional or unconditional). The bursary selection panel can only consider your application if you hold an active offer throughout your bursary application process, meaning if your offer is declined at any point up until the bursary decision deadline you will no longer be eligible.

You will not be eligible for this bursary if:

Applicants for this scholarship must be nationals from countries defined by the DAC List of ODA Recipients . The scholarship will be awarded broadly based on motivation to study MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants and academic merit.

• you are fully sponsored by your employer;
• you are already in receipt of a full bursary; or
• you already hold or will hold a Masters degree or PhD qualification.

Criteria

The scholarship will be awarded broadly on academic merit and motivation to study for the programme as evidenced in your personal statement.

Applying

Eligible applicants should complete an online scholarship application.

In order to gain access to the scholarship application system, applicants must have applied for admission to the University of Edinburgh. Please note that, following the submission of an application for admission, it can take up to five working days for all system checks to be completed and access to be granted.

We highly recommend you apply for the scholarship well in advance of the scholarship deadline date should you encounter any technical difficulties with your application which need resolved .

The online scholarship application form is located in EUCLID and can be accessed via MyEd - our web based information portal at: https://www.myed.ed.ac.uk

When logging in to MyEd, you will need your University User Name (UUN) and password. If you require assistance, please go to: http://www.ed.ac.uk/student-systems/support-guidance

Further guidance on applying for scholarships as a registered student can be found here: Applying for a scholarship | Student Systems | Student Administration

The deadline for applying for this scholarship will be 23:59 (UK Time) 31st March 2027.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Scholarships Systems FAQs for Applicants (231.61 KB / PDF)

Notification

The successful applicant of this scholarship will be notified by July 2027.

Contact Details

Please direct any queries to studentsupport@rbge.org.uk

Further Information

MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Important

The University reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to amend or withdraw any of the advertised scholarships, without further notice.

This article was published on 2026-10-06

Research areas