ASSITEJ ESPAÑA announces the first Juan Cervera Grant for research on performing arts for children and young people. The aim of this grant is to stimulate and promote research work, as well as to foster the production of rigorous, diverse and contextualised knowledge about performing practices aimed at children and young people.
BASIS 2025
Object of the call
ASSITEJ ESPAÑA announces a research grant of 2,500 euros to support academic research in the field of performing arts for children and young people.
2. Financial envelope
A single grant of 2500 euros to the best research project presented in the opinion of the jury, which may declare the grant void, but may not divide it.
The tax obligations deriving from the scholarship shall be the sole responsibility of the scholarship holder, who shall be subject to the legal withholdings in force.
The amount of aid will be distributed over the duration of the research as follows:
- 70% at the signing of the protocol of acceptance-assignment of the scholarship.
- 30% to the delivery of the research work in its final version in pdf and Word format and a summary of the work with a length of two to four pages.
3. Participants and requirements
This grant is open to researchers of any nationality with research projects that address issues related to the performing arts for children and/or young people and are written in any co-official language of the Spanish State, provided that they are accompanied by a translation into Spanish.
Each applicant may submit only one research project.
Members of the Board of Directors of ASSITEJ Spain and authors who have been awarded this scholarship in any of the two previous editions are not eligible to apply for this scholarship.
4. Project characteristics
The thematic lines that can be addressed with the research are completely open within this field. Works that address contemporary issues from the point of view of creation, stage languages, education, mediation, dramaturgy, etc. will be particularly valued.
Adaptations or recasts of previous published research will not be accepted. In the case of the extension of a research project in order to achieve new objectives or to deepen some of them, this must be duly justified in the explanatory report of the project for which the grant is being applied for.
The Jury will particularly value projects that envisage the development of a research paradigm with a methodological structure that is well differentiated in its phases and realistic in its timeframe.
The works must be original and unpublished in any medium, and failure to comply with this requirement will result in the withdrawal of the grant.
5. Evaluation criteria
The jury will assess:
- Relevance of the topic
- Originality and innovation
- Feasibility and methodological structure
- Contribution to the sector
- Researcher profile
6. Required Documentation
The application must be submitted in digitised form by e-mail to the following address becas@assitej.es with three attachments in PDF format:
- FILE 1. Professional Curriculum Vitae(If you have publications and published articles that are not online, they can be attached to the submitted material).
- FILE 2. Explanatory report on the research project(Maximum length 6 pages, Arial, size 12, single-spaced). It must contain:
- Summary/ Abstract
- Objectives and justification
- Methodology - Research design and timetable
- If the research project is supported by additional grants, specify institutions and percentages funded out of the total budget.
- FILE 3. Suitability letter. Experience of the researcher and suitability of the project and its profile within the objectives of the grant.
The material should be sent as follows:
In the subject line specify Juan Cervera Grant for research on performing arts for children and young people.
7. Procedure and timetable
The closing date for receipt is 28 July 2025 (peninsular time).
The jury's decision, which is final, will be made public before the end of 2025.
The deadline for the receipt of the enquiry is the 1 September 2026.
ASSITEJ Spain, within a period of 3 months from the date of the jury's decision, will destroy the non-awarded files.
8. Publication and transfer of rights
The research will remain at the free disposal of ASSITEJ Spain for a period of two years from its delivery, for publication purposes. If ASSITEJ publishes the work, it will be done under its usual publishing contract. Otherwise, the author will retain his/her rights, although he/she must include the legend 'I Juan Cervera Grant for research on performing arts for children and young people' in any subsequent publication, and deliver 5 copies to ASSITEJ Spain in the case of physical editions.
Participation in this competition implies full acceptance of these rules and the jury's decision.
Until 2023, our organisation organised the Juan Cervera Award on a biennial basis. It was in 2025 when the Board of Directors decided to convert the Award into a scholarship as a formula to encourage academic research in the field of performing arts for children and young people.
Juan Cervera Awards:
- Edition X 2021 Cristina Santolaria. A Million Little Princesses! The Madrid scene for childhood in the first Francoism.
- Edition IX 2019 HUGO SALCEDO LARIOS Immigration in theatre for children and youth in Mexico
- VIII Edition 2017 LOLA FERNANDEZ FROM SEVILLE Ogres, spinach and so on… How to count the terrible thing to girls and boys in the theatre
- Edition VII 2015 YOLOXOCHITL GARCIA Perspectives on children's drama in Mexico
- Edition V 2010 EVELYN GOLDFINGER Theatre-TV: Modes of television production in children's theatre
- Edition IV 2008 Xavier Lopez Askasibar Luis Matilla's children's theatre or touching theatre with your hands
- Edition III 2006 BERTA MUNOZ CHALICE Current panorama of theatrical books for children and young people in Spain
- Edition II 2004 DESERT
- Edition I 2002 MIGUEL PACHECO The wonder of Mnemosyne
