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.

International fellowships

The Research Development Team works with colleagues across the Library and external partners to support a variety of fellowship programmes for international researchers. These programmes are designed for mid-career professionals wishing to develop their career by engaging with collections, resources and audiences at the Library and working in close dialogue with our staff, fostering international skills exchange and collaboration.

Our current portfolio of international fellowships is outlined below.

Chevening British Library Fellowships

The British Library currently awards two professional development fellowships each year through a special collaboration with Chevening, the UK government’s international awards scheme aimed at developing global leaders.

Find out more about current and past Chevening Fellows and forthcoming opportunities.

J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowships

The British Library is a participant host organisation for the J S Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme offered by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation. J S Lee Memorial Fellowships promote international cultural and intellectual exchange in the field of Chinese art. They offer an opportunity for a mid-career scholar to spend a period of 4 to 12 months working with the Library to participate in curatorial work and research.

Find out more about the J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme.

Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowships

The British Library is one of the host institutions for Visiting Fellowships awarded by the Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT).

They offer an opportunity for an early- to mid-career scholar from India to spend a period of 3 months working with the Library to participate in curatorial work and research. Research themes for CWIT Fellowships are proposed by the British Library, with interested applicants invited to submit a short application and CV for their preferred theme.

Future opportunities for Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowships at the British Library will be advertised on this web page as soon as the next call for applications opens.

For more information about Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowships, including opportunities at other institutions, please visit the Charles Wallace India Trust website.

 

Visiting fellowships and awards

The Library manages several fellowship schemes that support individual research on British Library collections. These awards provide funding for researchers to use our collections as Readers, or for resources such as photographs and books. 

The following visiting fellowships and awards are coordinated by different departments across the Library. Inquiries should be directed to the contacts listed on individual fellowship pages.

Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowships

The Eccles Centre for American Studies offers a range of Fellowships and Awards to support the use of the British Library's collections covering the Caribbean, Canada and the United States, and to raise awareness of these resources.

Details of current opportunities and past awards can be found on the Eccles Centre webpages.

Edison Fellowships

Edison Fellowships are designed to encourage scholarship devoted to the history of recordings of classical music and music in performance through creating the conditions for concentrated use of the Library's collections of recordings.

Find out how to apply and what topics previous Fellows have researched.

Helen Wallis Fellowship

The Helen Wallis Fellowship  is an annual award to a scholar from any field, whose work will help promote the use of the British Library’s cartographic collections in historical investigation. A sum of £300 will be made available to the Fellow to be spent in the British Library, on photographs, books, or any other charged service.

The closing date for each annual award is 1 May. Find out more about the Helen Wallis Fellowship and how to apply.

National Life Stories Goodison Fellowship

The National Life Stories Goodison Fellowship allows a researcher a period of sustained engagement with the oral history collections in order to reflect on life stories and memory, and share the results publicly in a variety of formats and outcomes.

Find out about past Goodison Fellows, and details of future calls.

National Trust and British Library Doctoral Fellowships

The Library has partnered with the National Trust to offer three-month fellowships for doctoral students to work on projects that uncover links between the two organisations' collections.

Current opportunity: Exploring British Library and National Trust horticultural collections. Deadline 6 April 2023.

 

Please note that we are unable to accept speculative applications from individuals for hosting fellowships that fall outside the above schemes. 

 

Image from the British Library's Flickr Commons of public domain images.