Early career fellowships in cultural and heritage institutions: 2025 (invite only) in Swindon

Opportunity status: Upcoming

Funders: Funding type: Fellowship

Total fund: £2,500,000

Minimum award: £312,500

Publication date: 4 February 2026

Opening date: 16 February 2026 9:00am UK time

Closing date: 11 June 2026 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding to conduct research at cultural and heritage institutions. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding.

The main requirements for this opportunity are as follows:

• You must be an early career researcher
• Hold a doctorate in a relevant subject or have equivalent professional experience and skills
• Align with your proposed host's interests

Only applicants successful at the expression of interest stage may apply. Projects can cost up to £312,500. AHRC funds 80%. Fellowships start on 1 January 2027 and last one to two years (longer if part-time).

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility.

You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful expression of interest application.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

• Career breaks
• Support for people with caring responsibilities
• Flexible working
• Alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer during the application and assessment process. Applications are welcomed from applicants in underrepresented groups within the sector, for example, ethnic minorities and disabled people.

This funding opportunity will include a programme of cohort events for fellows, designed to foster networking, enhance skills development, and ensure that diverse participation needs are met. These activities are integral to the fellowship experience and details will be provided to successful applicants. AHRC expects that fellows will actively engage with these opportunities as a core component of the award.

Aim

This funding opportunity enables early career postdoctoral, or equivalent, researchers to gain research and career experience in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) sector. Fellows will work with a major cultural or heritage host organisation on a co-designed research project that benefits the fellow and the host organisation.

The objectives of the scheme are to:

• Create new opportunities for early career postdoctoral researchers to build, deepen or broaden their experience of working in, and with, major cultural and heritage organisations
• Develop the fellows' skills and future research career in areas of relevance to the work, collections and practices of cultural and heritage organisations
• Deliver high quality and impactful research and innovation projects
• Enhance the host organisation's capacity to undertake research and innovation activities, closely aligned with its priorities and strategies, leading to practical benefits and outcomes for the host
• Address a need across the GLAM sector in respect of the lack of dedicated support at the early stage of research careers
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion principles
• Strengthen efforts to build and diversify research capabilities in the cultural heritage research and innovation ecosystem
• Further extend the GLAM sector's engagement with, and contribution to, society
• Catalyse high quality and impactful research and innovation projects

This will be achieved through funding individual fellowships hosted by cultural and heritage independent research organisations (IROs), supported by a complementary programme of networking events and cohort career development activities. Your fellowship is expected to meet all the above objectives.

Research themes

The focus of your proposal must fit within one of the as published during the expression of interest stage. Proposals should contribute to and vision on cultural assets and our where appropriate as well as address specific areas of research interest identified by host organisations. Applications will be welcomed from prospective fellows across the full range of disciplines funded by AHRC, including, but not limited to:

• Archaeology
• Cultural and museum studies
• History
• Library and information studies
• Creative and performing arts
• Design
• Visual arts

IRO-based research is motivated by public benefit. Research underpins the curation, conservation and interpretation of places, collections and public programmes that engage millions of people every year. Fellows have the opportunity for their research to have a direct impact on a public institution's collections, practices, and policies, which in turn has an impact on the experience and understanding of members of the public.

The IROs are responsible for some of the UK's most significant cultural heritage collections, natural and built environment, and performing arts practice. They are multidisciplinary organisations, whose staff hold expertise and undertake research in a range of fields, crossing chronologies, geographies and media. IRO research communities represent a diversity of specialism and methodological approach from historical to scientific, practice and performance-led to pedagogical research, and much more.

Fellows will develop the skills, understanding and experience of what it means to work in this sector and how to share research with different kinds of audiences. IROs welcome innovative new historical, contextual and interdisciplinary research on the UK's cultural and creative heritage.

In developing your proposal, you need to consider the thematic areas below which meet our vision and respond to IRO priorities. Research may focus on underexplored collections and places, unlocking opportunities for more inclusive engagement with heritage. It may also seek to realise the cultural, societal and economic capital of under-studied collections, heritage landscapes and cultural assets through data-driven research and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Your proposal may contextualise collections and heritage in relation to contemporary themes of national and global relevance, such as exploring how collections and places illuminate identities and mobility. Creative technology may be applied in the context of practice and performance, while heritage science can be engaged to better understand and conserve collections, sites, materials and environments. Research may also explore how cultural heritage can address and engage with climate change and biodiversity loss, and the sustainability and resilience of collections and heritage.

This includes, for example:

• Collection care
• Greener institutional practices
• Efficiency gains in collections management, discoverability and access
• Risk management
• Sustainability and the historic environment, including resilience and non-invasive adaptation of historic building fabrics

Research could also enhance current, and explore future, practices in cultural, heritage and creative organisations. This includes, for example:

• Application of digital technologies and responsible AI
• Design thinking or creative methods
• Balancing open research with copyright and IP
• Provenance and collection or institution history
• Research to support organisational decision-making
• Co-design of research to open collections to new users or engage new audiences with heritage spaces
• Research which helps connect communities, both local and global, with heritage sites and collections
• Next generation curatorial practices and digital collections

As a candidate for a fellowship, you may develop these themes using a range of methodologies, including practice-based, action research and conservation and heritage science approaches. Outcomes might include enhanced skills and career pathways within the cultural and heritage sector or, for example, contributions to curatorial, learning or educational practices.

Training and development

This funding opportunity includes a tailored training and development programme for the cohort of fellows, designed to support researchers working across the GLAM and higher education institution sectors. The programme builds on the successful model delivered by the Cohort Coordination and Development team at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) during the pilot phase, and will include sector-specific skills training, panel discussions, and networking activities to foster peer-learning and cohort identity. It will support engagement within and beyond the fellow cohort, career development, and inclusive participation. The programme will be delivered primarily online, with some in-person events, including a residential. Fellows are expected to actively engage with the programme, with activities averaging at 0.5 days per week.

Duration

Your fellowship can be full-time, part-time or hybrid (a combination of the two). It can last for a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years (longer if part-time). We expect fellowships to start 1 January 2027 unless exceptional circumstances apply, for example on equality, diversity and inclusion grounds. The host independent research organisation will administer the fellowship award and employ you for the period of the fellowship. You will be listed as the project lead of your fellowship grant. You can include the cost of a short period of research assistance or technical assistance (no more than 12 months full-time equivalent in total) to support specific activities in support of your research project. You must do the majority of the proposed research activity.

Funding available: The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £312,500. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC. The host institution must contribute the remaining 20% of the FEC. The host organisation and the fellow must work together to prepare the budget as part of the application process. We will contribute to the cost of mentoring. However, institutions may provide additional mentoring support alongside other forms of leadership or career development support for early career applicants, as part of their additional support for the fellowship. This route can also include collaborative projects and placements between the IRO host and other GLAM organisations or other partner institutions. Non-IROs may wish to consider collaborating with an IRO host to offer a placement opportunity for the fellow. This would enable the fellow to spend part of the fellowship with the organisation, for example, to work on a specific project or collection. Costs incurred through placements can be included as part of your funding applications.

Portfolio balancing

As part of the full stage application process, AHRC will implement portfolio balancing to ensure the opportunity delivers equitably across research areas, institutional types, and geographic locations. Applications will be assessed by the panel against the published criteria and ranked in terms of excellence. AHRC will then use these recommendations to create a balanced portfolio from the highest quality proposals. In creating a balanced portfolio, AHRC will consider the following:

• Institutional diversity, including representation across a range of IROs and applications that involve partnerships with smaller or regional GLAM or heritage organisations
• Research focus, to support fellowship applications that cover a breadth of research areas and methodological approaches
• Geographic coverage, to support a distribution of fellows across the UK

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our set out UKRI's expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration. As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

How to apply

Each independent research organisation (IRO) will be able to submit one application. We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The fellow is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application. Only the lead independent research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

This funding opportunity is by invitation only. When received, please click on the invitation link to start your application. Select 'Start application' using the link provided. Confirm you are the fellow. Sign in or create a Funding Service account.