Chevening British Library Fellowship

The Chevening British Library Fellowship is closed for applications for the 2023/24 academic year.

The Chevening British Library Fellowship is a collaboration between the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office and the British Library, offering international experts a year-long professional project-based placement. Fellows will have the privilege of working with the extensive library’s collections and benefit from the broad range of professional expertise of library staff.

The British Library is the national library of the UK and one of the world’s greatest research libraries. The British Library’s collection encompasses all fields of knowledge in hundreds of languages, covering 3,500 years from some of the earliest written records to the digital collections of the present day, and range over all formats. As a public-facing, culturally-active research institute, Chevening is pleased to partner with the British Library to bring international experts to the UK to pursue a one-of-a-kind opportunity.

The fellowship is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

Programme structure

Fellows will undertake a period of professional project-based activity at the British Library, receiving support and supervision from library staff. Please note that this fellowship is not suitable for those wanting to pursue their own research.

Please read through the detailed theme profiles below for more information about this year’s themes.

As a public-facing, culturally-active, research institute, the Library is able to provide a broad range of professional development opportunities for fellows. Fellows will have a unique project-based placement involving research, consultation, and strategy development, coupled with stakeholder engagement and outreach opportunities.

Fellows will benefit from embedded working and hands-on training within a specific team, as well as having access to a range of organisational training and development opportunities, such as the British Library’s Digital Scholarship programme. The library’s postgraduate research manager will provide additional pastoral support and work with supervisors to monitor the progress and professional development. Each fellow will also be allocated up to £1,000 for approved project-related expenses.

This fellowship programme will commence in September 2024 and is for a 12-month period of project-based activity at the British Library.

Benefits

• 12-month period of project-based activity at the British Library.
• Living expenses for the duration of the fellowship.
• Return economy airfare from your home country to the UK.
• Allowance package for fellowship-related activities.
• Up to £1,000 for approved project-related expenses.
• Access to a programme of cultural events and activities organised by the FCDO and the Chevening Secretariat.

Eligibility 

To be eligible for a Chevening British Library Fellowship, you must:

• Demonstrate the potential to rise to positions of leadership and influence.
• Demonstrate that you possess the personal, intellectual, and interpersonal attributes reflecting this potential.
• Be a citizen of the listed countries, outlined respectively in the fellowship theme pages.
• Return to your country of citizenship at the end of the period of the fellowship.
• Have a postgraduate level qualification (or equivalent professional training or experience in a relevant area) at the time of application.
• Have significant professional and/or academic research experience (at least five years).
• Be currently employed or a currently enrolled PhD candidate (PhD must not be with a UK/EU or USA university).
• Have a good working knowledge of English to be assessed in your application form and if you are invited to interview.
• Not hold British or dual British citizenship.
• Not be an employee, a former employee, or relative* of an employee of His Majesty’s Government, or have been within the last two years from the opening of Chevening applications (including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, all British Embassies/High Commissions, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for International Trade and the UKVI), the British Council, a sponsoring UK university, or a staff member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Note: Immediate relatives are defined as parents or step-parents, siblings or step-siblings, children or step-children, spouse, civil partner or unmarried (where the couple have been in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership for at least two years).

Please note that applicants who have previously received financial benefit from a HMG-funded scholarship or fellowship are eligible to apply after a period of five years following the completion of their first HMG funded award. In these cases, applicants will be required to demonstrate their career progression from that point.