The Brian Large Bursary Fund Registered Charity No 328747
Report for the period 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026
The Brian Large Bursary Fund was established in 1990 in memory of Brian Large, a leading transport planner, who died in 1989.
Statement of the Fund’s Purpose
The advancement of the education of the public and in particular the promotion and encouragement of teaching and research in the field of transportation studies at universities in the United Kingdom.
Administration
Trustees: Nicholas M Dybeck Dougie McDonald Martin G Richards OBE Michael Roberts. Administrator: Martin Richards OBE Address: The Old School House, Coldharbour, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6HF.
Accounts prepared by: Nicholas Dybeck. Accounts checked by: Michael Roberts.
The Trustees meet from time to time to consider the Fund's investment portfolio, to decide on the amount and type of awards to be made available, and to make decisions on applications received.
Report for 2025-2026
Trustees
There was no change in Trustees during the year.
Accounts
Total receipts during the year amounted to £26,239.
A total of £29,400 was disbursed in the form of bursaries paid during the period, £1,000 was paid to the winner of the 2025 Voorhees-Large Prize and £10,000 to Craig Smith as the second tranche of a £30,000 PhD research grant. Operating expenses were £262.
Our total assets at 5 April 2025 were £859,256 (investments: £830,278; cash at bank: £33,366).
Our total assets at 5 April 2026 were £888,616 (investments: £825,890; cash at bank: £47,788).
We did not sell any of our investments to cover operating costs during the year.
The Brian Large Bursary Fund Annual Report 2025/26
Reserves Policy
The established policy of the Trustees is to award bursaries to an annual value in line with the Trust’s cash resources, augmented from time to time by a part of any increase in the capital value of the Trust’s funds beyond that required to maintain their value in real terms. Accordingly, the Trustees consider that as there are no circumstances in which a reserve would be required to meet the Fund’s obligations there is no need for them to maintain a separate reserve.
Risk Management
The Trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the Fund might be exposed and are satisfied that their procedures mitigate them.
Web Site
The Trust has a web site, www.blbf.co.uk, to provide information about the Fund for potential beneficiaries, universities and other interested parties.
Data Privacy
The Trust has a Data Privacy policy, available at www.blbf.co.uk/gdpr-policy
Safeguarding
The Trust has a Safeguarding policy.
Distribution of Funds
Funds are mainly distributed by means of bursaries awarded annually to students undertaking a taught Masters course in transport at universities in the United Kingdom. In addition, the Fund awards an annual Voorhees-Large Prize to a transport Masters graduate and, as a special case, awarded a grant of £30,00 to Craig Smith, winner of the 2023 Voorhees Large Prize to contribute to the funding of his PhD studies at UCL.
The Trustees regularly review their procedures for the awards they make, seeking to ensure the funds are providing the intended benefits. The Trustees confirm that in doing this and in making awards they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit.
Information on the bursaries and the Voorhees-Large Prize is disseminated to an e-mail list, maintained by the Fund’s Administrator, of contacts within UK Universities offering a full time Masters course in Transport. Within the universities, the Trustees rely on course administrators to make their prospective students aware of the existence of the bursary funds.
Bursaries
From its inception, the Trust's purpose has been served through the award of Publication, Travel and Masters Bursaries of varying levels. Since 2000, the Trustees have focussed their funds on providing Bursaries to support UK residents studying full-time for a taught Masters in transport at a UK university. The Trust’s Bursaries are intended to provide funding to
The Brian Large Bursary Fund Annual Report 2025/26
students who would not otherwise be able to commit to a full time Masters course in transport without the need to spend a substantial amount of time in paid work.
Bursaries are awarded by the Trustees only to students who have been recommended by the university of their choice. The Trustees’ decisions are based solely on the merits of each applicant, as assessed from the information they and their sponsoring university have provided on the Fund’s application documents. This includes the benefit they are likely to receive from completing a transport Masters course and their potential contribution, after graduation, to the profession and work of transport planning.
In order to comply with the Common Reporting Standard, the Trustees include a question to establish the tax residency status of beneficiaries on their bursary application form.
For the academic year 2024/25 the Trustees awarded four bursaries, of £10,000 each; again, one of the students subsequently decided not to pursue their planned studies. The three students who have been supported by the Fund are:
Kalihasan Anjukan UCL The Barlett Ryan Delaney University of Leeds Thomas Collard University of Cardiff The final payment, of £3,200 each, was made in June 2025.
For the academic year 2025/26 the Trustees awarded five bursaries, of £10,400 each to:
Msalm M M Alnahal Westminster University Sean Barry University of Leeds Neil Cobb Cardiff University Alexandre Lee UCL The Bartlett Isaac Mundy UWE
However, Msalm M M Alnahal did not join his course. The remaining four received the first two instalments of their bursary, totalling £7,100 each, during the financial year 2025/26 and were reported by their university to be making good progress. The final payments, of £3,300 each, will be made in the Trust’s reporting year 2026/27.
The Trustees are assured that those students awarded a Brian Large Bursary complete their Masters courses and progress on to careers in transport.
The Voorhees-Large Prize
An annual prize award, the Voorhees-Large Prize, was announced in 2010, in memory of both Brian Large and Al Voorhees. Al was the founder of Alan M Voorhees and Associates and its UK company, MVA, of which Brian was a Director. The prize, worth £1,000, is awarded to the student studying for a transport Masters at a UK university considered by the Trustees to have written the best dissertation relative to a set of published criteria. UK universities offering a transport Masters course are invited to nominate the best dissertation on a topic related to transport policy, analysis or planning, prepared and submitted by one of their Masters students in the twelve months, usually to 30 November.
The 2025 Voorhees-Large Prize was awarded to to Zeqi Xu for his Transport Planning Masters dissertation Modelling of mixed traffic flow of CAVs considering stochasticity and spatial distribution characteristics of vehicles , submitted at the University of Leeds Institute for
The Brian Large Bursary Fund Annual Report 2025/26
Transport Studies. Zeqi’s, whose Bachelor of Engineering degree was from Chongqing Jiaotong University China, is currently pursuing a Masters of Engineering in Traffic and Transportation at Southwest Jiaotong University, China. It was as part of these studies that he studied at Leeds for his Masters in Transport Planning.
Craig Smith – PhD Research Grant
Having met Craig Smith, winner of the 2022 Voorhees-Large Prize (‘ Accessibility, Urban Design, and the Whole Journey Experience of Visually Impaired People in London’), the Trustees decided to award him a £30,000 grant towards the cost of studying for a PhD at UCL. The focus of his research studies is The Use of Augmented Reality in Mobile Navigation for the Visually Impaired . The grant is payable in three £10,000 tranches through UCL; the second payment was made in October 2025.
The Brian LargB Bursary Fund charity CommissiDn Number". 328747 Red lexl Indic4les daiJ that Is enlered.ml ar8 dénv8dwilhin spr8adsh8 Cashbook lorthèy•arend•d 05m412026 Ro¢•ip Rt¢Oipts Ro¢thpt6 R6CthPts RIpts Tran6f¢rto C4f¢a¥h Account M&G RIT CCLA Donatltsns 2996 46 a4& 2996 46 3(48 3223.07 3226.ob 30. 9600. 48.fy) iooo (M) 20800 3600. 15.fy) 1S600 (K) iooooo 148708. 149.54 7.35 0.00 7440.53 0.00 5992 92 1264299 150Q(WJ 00 0.00 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 20 Tot 148708.(M) 0.00 7440.53 0.00 5992 92 18284299 0.00 TOU rwts. 176611.45 Balance R¢¢elW$ Léss Payts 8alancèy 05m4t2025 33365.83 148708.(N) 0510412028 32 P4ym•nts P4ymqrrt• Payrnonts Paymqrrts Rocpts Rpts Bank Charges & Transferfrom C4fCa5h Exp8ns05 CAFGold Intsrqst 60.00 Payment ffl8thod 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Oetall$ ol paymnt$ onlhly accountfe8 Kailithasan Ryan Thoma$ Callar Wix 3yTS Domain vla DMCD V-L Prize- Katie LeS Ctaig Smith PhD Nel Cobb Isaac Jexandre Lee Bary Nel Cobb Isaac Jexandre Lee Sean B&ry Put¢ha$eof M&G rtS Invostm•nts Iran6f Iransfor Onltransfer (etransfer Iratssfet Iransfor Onltransfer transfer Iratssfet Iransfor Onltransfer transfer Iratssfet Iransfor ch8qU8 3200.00 32QD.00 3200.00 1.24 9600.00 30.(KTr 48. iooo. 20800.(K) 3600 00 15. 13600.(K) 100000.(K) 48.fKTr 10DDD.00 3600.00 3800.00 3600.00 3800.00 3400.00 3400.00 3400.00 34QD.00 42 43 44 4$ 46 47 48 1(.00 50 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 48800.00 00 0.00 148708. Balan ReGÈipts Less PaynTht$ BèlaTrts¢lf @ 05104025 148713.50 148709.fy) QY04t2026
(HAklTY (OmMIsON NthJ28747 Recei tsand mgnts accounts CC16• tTom Sectioll A Receipts and payments Rebtrttsd Endowmpnt T¢rlfuhas L&tye4r A1 Re(pL1 Subtotsl{GMssGQThB forARI sCsh Btrok. AJ Paym .i¢o ChunIe&cXpQrt& Swb¢otr 4&7S• 4DAI Subiolal 14¥,7VB N•toIrnc•lpiThrj ASTN9¢Stw••fUoS A6 Clshkndslastwr?d CashfuM(ts Sc¢iion B Statcmcnt of as8vts and liabilitics at thc cnd of thv pvriod Rèjtrlcthd Ertdowmenl tunds B1 Callhfunds R•Wl¢tsO Endwm•nt lund 820th•iMonaryisuls tbdDn ctIDpdI LAlnwthntslC<4EI FuMkhkh ¢LthhiYJr B4AM•t5 m14dfor¢ FurAts¥Jhkl ur41 YThnth viPn e4f all1eE5 SigniLw fvqrfi HeDYiÉk