News

A broad range of research placement opportunities have been identified by the Library for 2019-20 (click on the links below to view placement project profiles)

• Art, poetry and memory: Contemporary UK Artists’ Books
  
• Chinese works of art in the British Library Visual Arts collections
• The Treasures of Danzan Ravjaa
• Identifying and using map images in born-digital collections
• Digitisation of archives: benefits and opportunities
• George Orwell's Collection of Political Pamphlets
• Greek Papyri of Late Antique Egypt
• Assessing the impact of the British Library’s major heritage acquisitions
• Life on the Home Front: Experiences of the Second World War in Britain
• Communicating international engagement at the British Library
• The ‘long tail’ of UK born-digital publications: What can we learn from legal deposit data?
• Illumination in Persian manuscripts
• Making the case for the national library – exploring the value of how collections are used
• Practice research at the British Library
• Historic photographs of the Silk Road
• Public policy development at the British Library: Soft Power and international working
• Taras Shevchenko at the British Library: Mapping and linking our collections
• Analysing topographical image making c. 1600-1824
• Trade Literature in the British Library collection
• The oriental manuscripts collection of Sir William Jones (1746-94)
• Women’s History Online Resources
• Exploring working-class writing at the British Library

Please refer to the application guidelines and email the completed application form and a CV to Research.Development@bl.uk

Application guidelines (PDF)

Application form (Word)

Please note that all applications must be approved by the applicant’s PhD supervisor.

The application deadline is 5 pm on Monday, 18 February 2019

• Open to all PhD students, as long as they have the support of their PhD supervisor
• International students are eligible if they have the right to study in the UK

The British Library PhD research placement scheme has been developed in consultation with UK research funders, universities and Doctoral Training Partnerships.

The research placements offered through the scheme are opportunities for current PhD students to apply and enhance research skills and expertise outside of Higher Education as part of their wider research training and professional development. They are training and development opportunities to be undertaken within this specific context – and are therefore different to the paid internships or other fixed-term posts that the Library may occasionally make available. See the Application Guidelines for further details and background.

Please note that – unlike for an internship or a fixed-term post – the British Library is unable to provide stipends or payment to PhD placement students. It is therefore essential that applicants to the placement scheme obtain the support of their PhD supervisor in advance and that, as part of their process, they consult their HEI to ascertain what funding is available to support them.

After the interview stage, students who have been offered a placement and are not able to cover the costs through funding from their university or other sources may apply to the Library’s PhD Placement Travel Fund to request help to cover day-to-day commuting expenses or one-off relocation travel costs only. Please note that this Fund is limited and the success of an application to it cannot be guaranteed.

To support self-funded and part-time students, most placements can be done on a part-time basis, with some remote working also sometimes possible – see the individual projects for details.

Contact Research.Development@bl.uk for all queries or to be added to our placement scheme mailing list.