Early Career Fellowships and Awards in the Arts and Humanities

The School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture 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 Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture 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 Dr Syrithe Pugh 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. Further information can be found here.	Application deadline anticipated in June 2026. Details to be confirmed.
European Research Council	Starter Grant	For further details please contact europe-rg@abdn.ac.uk>	Application period generally runs from April to October. (Annual deadline)
European Research Council	Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship	For further details please contact europe-rg@abdn.ac.uk>	Application period generally runs from April to October. (Annual deadline)

British Academy International Fellowships 2026

The School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture (LLMVC) 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 fellowship scheme (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 (please note that these details refer to last year’s announcement).

If you are eligible, and would like to apply to hold a BA International Fellowship in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, please submit an outline proposal (Intention proforma, Abstract, and CV) to the School’s Research Development Executive, Dr Sabine Freitag, by 5 pm on Monday 12 January 2026, 5pm, 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 Dr Syrithe Pugh, 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. The timeline for opening and closing of rounds can be accessed here. Further details on the scheme can be found here.

Funding: Up to £100,000 - £300,000