Mid-career Fellowships on British Art and Architecture

Mid-Career Fellowships are awarded annually to academics and scholars at universities, museums, galleries or other institutions who are established in their careers and who were awarded their doctorates over six years previously. Applications are also welcome from independent and freelance scholars, and from individuals who do not hold a doctorate, but all applicants must have a scholarly profile.

They are designed to release Fellows from teaching and/or other employment responsibilities and provide them with a defined period of four months to devote to research for an article, book, exhibition or catalogue.

The Fellowship is an award of £18,000 to cover a period of four months.

The Paul Mellon Centre is an educational charity that champions new ways of understanding British art history and culture. Through all areas of our work, including our grants and fellowships programme, we promote activities that enhance and expand knowledge of British art and architecture. As an institution, we pledge ourselves to ensuring that the histories of British art are enriched and made more relevant to a broader range of people in the future. The inclusion of voices, narratives and experiences that have been marginalised or excluded in the past will have a transformational impact on the future of the Centre and upon British art studies. Accordingly, the Paul Mellon Centre particularly welcomes applications from those who are under-represented within the academic field of the humanities in the UK.

Scope

Four-month full-time Mid-Career Fellowships are specifically designed for:

• a period of sustained research for a clearly defined major project which will lead to a publication (printed or online), article, a catalogue or an exhibition

Funding

Mid-Career Fellowships are awards of £18,000, this can be taken as either:

• Replacement teaching or staff costs and paid directly to either the Fellow’s University or institution
• A lump-sum grant if the Fellow is an independent or freelance scholar

The Centre does not pay full economic costs.

If an independent Fellow accepts full-time employment during the period of the Mid-Career Fellowship, the Centre will request an appropriate reimbursement of the award.

Eligibility

Our funding programme supports scholarship, academic research and the dissemination of knowledge in the fields of British art and architectural history, and of British visual culture understood more broadly, from the medieval period to the present day. All supported topics must have a clear art-historical perspective, including those that focus on recent or contemporary artistic practice. All applications must demonstrate that British art, architecture or visual culture provides a substantial focus for their project. Applications will be assessed according to their academic rigour, originality, and contribution to scholarship. We do not fund research projects focusing on archaeology, current architecture practice, or the performing arts.

To apply for a Mid-Career Fellowship you must be an academic or scholar who is established in your career and who was awarded their doctorate over six years previously.

Mid-Career Fellowships are for the academic year 2024/2025 and may be taken between September 2024 and September 2025. Fellowships cannot be deferred to later academic years nor can they run concurrently with a Fellowship awarded by another institution.

Applications for shorter periods than four months will not be accepted.

For further questions on eligibility please contact the Grants & Fellowships Manager.

Application

Mid-Career Fellowships are offered in our Spring round of funding.

Applications are currently open, closing date for applications is 31 January 2024 at 11:59pm. Closing date for referees is 11 February 2024 at 11:59pm.

To apply for a Mid-Career Fellowship you must use our online system at grants.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk. Once registered you will be able to fill out the online application form (example of which can be downloaded below) and provide the details of two referees. The option to provide the referee details will be available once the application is submitted. We will then contact the nominated referee with details on how they submit their reference which must be completed through our online system and must be no more than 500 words.

Referees should have first-hand knowledge of the applicant’s academic career and the subject area for which funding is being sought. Advisory Council would like to be informed of the originality of the subject matter and the applicant’s suitability to pursue such research.

Applications and nominated referee details must be received by 31 January 2024, referees have until 11 February 2024 to submit their references.

Requirements

• Once confirmed, the Mid-Career Fellow must inform the Grants and Fellowships Manager of the dates of their Fellowship by the end of the year the award was made.
• On completion the Mid-Career Fellow must submit a comprehensive written report: this would typically be around 500 words (1 page) but may be longer if required. The report should detail the research activity undertaken during the funded period and the impact of this work on the larger project. The report must be submitted within three months of the completed Fellowship, this will then be shared with the Advisory Council. If there are any further future outcomes of the project outside of the Fellowship period (eg. publication, exhibition, academic papers) then the Mid-Career Fellow should send the details of these to the Grants and Fellowships Manager.