The Sibbald Trust is an independent charitable Trust based at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.  In general, Sibbald supports work, activities or matters that would not necessarily have had funding from the Garden; its trustees liaise with Garden management in assessing some grant applications, but maintain independence of thought and deed.

The Sibbald Trust holds two meetings a year at which applications are considered.  The meeting in the spring generally considers applications for smaller projects whilst the meeting in the autumn may consider applications for Fellowships.

The most important criterion for any application is the relevance and benefit to the work of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.  Short-term subsistence grants are available to botanists from UK and abroad to enable them to make use of the Garden’s massive resources of living plants, herbarium and library and to work with staff and build up long-term mutually beneficial working relationships.

The application form should be completed, including all the relevant salary costs as appropriate.  The relevance and benefit of the project to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh should be clearly stated.  If the applicant is not a member of RBGE staff a supporting statement should be included from a senior member of staff.  The application form should then be e-mailed to .