British Academy

The British Academy is the UK's national body for the humanities and social sciences – the study of peoples, cultures and societies, past, present and future.

• A Fellowship: We are an independent Fellowship of around 1,000 world-renowned scholars in the humanities and social sciences elected for outstanding research.
• A Voice: We are a voice for the humanities and social sciences, championing research and stimulating debate through policy reports and academic publications, lectures, conferences, and public events.
• A Funding Body: We fund research in fields from archaeology to economics, from psychology to history, and from literature to law – producing knowledge, insights and ideas that help to address the great challenges of our time.

The creation of a British Academy 'for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies' was first proposed in 1899 in order that Britain could be represented at a meeting of European and American academies. The organisation, which became known simply as the British Academy, received its Royal Charter from King Edward VII in 1902.

Since then, many of Britain's most distinguished scholars in the humanities and social sciences have been involved in the life of the British Academy. The roll call of past Fellows includes many of the greatest British names of the twentieth century, such as the influential economists John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek and William Beveridge; the eminent thinkers Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin, Louis and Mary Leakey, who made pioneering discoveries on the origins of man; A.J.P. Taylor, Kenneth Clark and Mortimer Wheeler, scholars who were also great communicators; and C.S. Lewis and Henry Moore, Fellows who combined learning with creativity.