Research is central to our role as the national library of the United Kingdom. It helps us to share our collections and intellectual heritage with people across the globe. You can read about the role of research in our strategic vision, Living Knowledge.

What we do

We lead and collaborate with specialists from other cultural organisations and universities on research of all kinds. You can read about our research activities in our Research Reports.

We work with a range of partners and funders to offer a variety of fellowship programmes for scholars to pursue their own research interests and develop professional expertise. Find out more about our fellowship opportunities.

We support postgraduate research through a range of programmes for doctoral students. Find out more about our collaborative doctoral studentships, PhD placement scheme and training events for doctoral students.

We play an active role in the national research landscape and contribute to the development of research policy in the UK. This expertise informs our own policy for good research practice at the Library. Find out more about our research policy work.

Get in touch

Find out how to propose a research collaboration with the British Library.

If have questions about research collaboration at the British Library, please contact the Research Development team.

 

Our research activity

Our research

Our research, professional and methodological expertise covers all disciplines and spans traditional and digital scholarship in all its forms.

Doctoral research

We support postgraduate research through our Reading Rooms and online resources, through collaborative projects, and through research training events.

Proposing a new research collaboration with the British Library

An overview of the internal review process for new research collaboration proposals at the British Library.

Fellowships

We work with a range of partners and funders to offer a variety of fellowship programmes for projects based at the Library, and grants to support individual research using the Library’s collections.

Training and events

The Library organises a range of research training and events, from doctoral training initiatives to lectures by distinguished scholars.

Policy

As the national library of the United Kingdom, we are an integral part of the national research infrastructure and have an active approach to research and higher education policy.

News

Funding for 12 new studentships in the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme

31 May 2023

Funding for 12 new collaborative PhD studentships

Publication of 2021–22 Research Report

25 April 2023

Publication of the British Library's 2021–22 Research Report.

Watch this space for our 2023 Doctoral Open Days!

23 November 2022

British Library Doctoral Open Days 2023

Blog posts

Webinar on Open Scholarship in GLAMs through Research Repositories

Thursday, May 4, 2023

If you work in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) sector and want to learn more about research repositories, then join us on 18th May, Thursday for an online repository training session for cultural heritage professionals. This event is...

Detecting Catalogue Entries in Printed Catalogue Data

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

This is a guest blog post by Isaac Dunford, MEng Computer Science student at the University of Southampton. Isaac reports on his Digital Humanities internship project supervised by Dr James Baker. Introduction The purpose of this project has been to...

PhD Studentship opportunity – The Belarus Collection at the British Library

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Queen Mary University of London and the British Library are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from 1 October 2023 under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This doctoral project seeks to advance postcolonial...

Siberian Ethnographic Museums: Indigenous Lives Exhibited

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

In his autobiographical novel The Chukchi Bible, Yuri Rytkheu tells the story of how his grandfather, Mletkin, a Chukchi shaman from the village of Uelen, in the Russian Far East, was put on display for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition...

More blog posts