Early Career Fellowships and Awards in the Arts and Humanities

The School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History is keen to support outstanding candidates in a number of externally funded research fellowship schemes. We welcome expressions of interest from high quality early-career candidates whose research interests align with those of academics in the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History at the University of Aberdeen, and who have checked their eligibility for the below schemes, which are advertised annually.

For any informal enquiries please contact the School Director of Research Prof Karin Friedrich or School’s Research Development Executive Dr Sabine Freitag.

Funder	Scheme	Internal Triage Process	Funder Opening/ Closing Date
The British Academy	Post-Doctoral Fellowship	School Level - Triage now closed	Application period generally runs from the beginning of July to the beginning of October.
The British Academy	International Fellowship	School Level – Details below	Application period generally runs from January to March.
Wellcome Trust	Early-Career Awards	School level	The Wellcome Trust opens applications for its Early Career Awards three times each year. Next Deadline 17 February 2026, 15:00 GMT.
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	Catalyst Award	School level	Responsive Mode – always open scheme
UKRI (cap of 4)	UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Round 11	University of Aberdeen triage – open for Expression of Interest	Application deadline July. Details to be confirmed.
European Research Council	Starter Grant	For further details please contact europe-rg@abdn.ac.uk>	tbc
European Research Council	Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship	For further details please contact europe-rg@abdn.ac.uk>	tbc

Available opportunities

AHRC - Research Council Awards at the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy, and Art History

AHRC - Research Council Awards

Summary

The University of Aberdeen is one of the 50 leading Higher Education Institutions to receive funding by the AHRC as part of their new approach for funding doctoral study across the arts and humanities.

Description

The University of Aberdeen is offering three AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award studentships starting in 2026/27, available on a full-time or part time basis, with a maximum of 1 award available for an international fee applicant. Projects must fall within the AHRC remit and align with the research within the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, School of Language, Literature, Music & Visual Culture, School of Geosciences (Archaeology), School of Law or School of School of Social Science.

Eligibility

AHRC DLA awards are open to both UK and International candidates. Please refer to the eligibility criteria before applying.

The funding is not open to current PhD students or distance PhD applicants.

Both home and international student must be resident in the UK for the majority of their studies and live within a reasonable commuting distance of the Research Organisation. This is to ensure that they can maintain regular contact with their department and their Supervisor. The only exceptions to these requirements are for periods of absence that are an essential part of their study such as fieldwork, study visits or attendance at conferences.

Criteria

Applicants for an AHRC doctoral studentship should demonstrate sufficient academic and/or experience to enable them to undertake doctoral study.

Students currently completing a master’s degree (or and equivalent postgraduate qualification), must have met all course requirements before commencing their AHRC-funded doctoral studentship.

Applicants without a master’s qualification may still be eligible if they can demonstrate experience beyond undergraduate level that is directly related to their proposed research topic. Applicants should provide clear evidence that the training and development they have undertaken has prepared them for doctoral research.

Application Procedure

Completed application forms should be combined with a full academic transcript (provided in English or with a certified translation) in a single PDF document using the file name “AHRC DLA – Student Surname, First name” and submitted to pgrs-studentships@abdn.ac.uk by 12 noon on Thursday, 15 January 2026.

All applicants also need to submit two recent academic references. These can either be combined within the application pdf, if references are already available, or referees may submit their references directly to pgrs-studentships@abdn.ac.uk using the file name “AHRC DLA Academic Reference – Student surname, first name”. Applicants must ensure their referees submit references by 12 noon on Thursday, 15 January 2026.

British Academy International Fellowships 2026

The School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History (DHPA) at the University of Aberdeen invites applications from prospective applicants to the British Academy International Fellowships 2026 scheme, which is expected to open for applications in January 2026. This 2-year programme (duration to be confirmed) provides support for outstanding early career researchers to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders. The award is offered at 80% FEC. Applicants may apply for research expenses of up to £12,000 and relocation costs of up to £8,000. Candidates must have a PhD or be in their final stages of their PhD, have no more than seven years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of applications (discounting career breaks, but including teaching experience and/or time spent in industry), be working outside the UK, not hold UK citizenship, be competent in oral and written English, and have a clearly defined and mutually-beneficial research proposal agreed with a UK host researcher. Full details of the scheme are given on the British Academy International Fellowship webpages.

If you are eligible, and would like to apply to hold a BA International Fellowship in the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, please submit an outline proposal (Intention proforma, Abstract, and CV) to the School’s Research Development Executive, Dr Sabine Freitag, by 5pm on Monday 12 January 2026, using the forms available to download below.

If you would like to be considered, you are strongly advised to contact your proposed departmental mentor before submitting your proposal. If you cannot yet identify a potential mentor, advice can be sought from Prof Karin Friedrich, School Director of Research, and Dr Sabine Freitag, Research Development Executive, who can advise you as to how to proceed and best make use of the support available. You can also review academic staff profiles and research interests on the School’s webpage.

Deadlines:

12 January 2026	Closing date for submission of outline proposals to the School.
12 January – 26 January 2026	A School review panel will undertake their review of applications and inform all candidates of the outcome of the decision.
26 January 2026	The selected candidate(s) will be invited to work on their final proposal(s) for submission to the British Academy with support from the School and colleagues from Research & Innovation.
March 2026 (date tbc)	UoA deadline to submit application(s) for institutional approval via the University’s Research Award Management system, Worktribe.
March 2026 (date tbc)	UoA deadline for candidate(s) to submit application(s) for institutional approval via the British Academy’s grant management system, FlexiGrant.
March 2026 (date tbc)	British Academy deadline for applications to the International Fellowship scheme. (tbc)

AHRC Responsive Mode: Catalyst Award

Awards to support researchers without prior experience of leading a significant research project to accelerate their trajectory as independent researchers, to unlock their potential and build leadership and convenor experience. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding. The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £300,000. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC. Funding is for projects up to five years in duration. Further details on the scheme can be found here.

Funding: Up to £100,000 - £300,000