Has anyone experience of applying for a Carnegie Trust Grant? (http://www.carnegie-trust.org/) I have a superviser willing to work out a PhD project with me if I can secure funding; however, all I can find online is Carnegie (I have a first from a Scottish Uni and would like to do a PhD at Glasgow), which I'll go for. I've had an exhaustive search online for other sources, with no luck. I'm interested in specific research with seabirds as markers of environmental change, building on my work experience with seabird monitoring over the past few years, is it a ridiculous expectation to think I'd get funding being this specific?

One thing you must try is NERC Natural Environment Research Council. Your research topis is absorbing!

No experience of a Carnegie grant, but I found one or two places on the Charities Commission website that I've applied to, some local and some topic related.

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

Maybe you could ask the Environment Agency? They may not pay for all of it but they could give you a contribution.

It says this on their website:

''In doing our work, we are required by law to take care of the environment and promote conservation. To achieve this, we need to understand the ecological needs of many species, some of which are vital in highlighting the state of the environment around them.''

Thanks for the interest in your responses, nice ideas, but both the EA and the Charities commission as you linked to are England & Wales, not Scotland! Although the Scottish equivalents aren't difficult to find.

NERC funding has "Students do not apply directly" written all over it, I thought potential supervisors applied to NERC? Or do they hand out funding alongside the official list of projects?

I applied for a Carnegie scholarship (funding for a phd) and I wasn't successful. They seem to be very competetive, there were only around 15 awards handed out for all disciplines when I applied and a first class degree was mandatory, so those were very long odds.