Early Career Fellowship Grants

About this program

The Royal Historical Society offers Early Career Fellowship Grants of up to £2,000 to support discrete, career-building historical research projects or activities of no more than six months (two rounds in 2026 with deadlines 6 Mar and 4 Sep; invitations for the next round open Oct 2025). Awards are flexible and may cover living expenses, childcare, research costs, conference attendance, UK archive visits, subscriptions and skills training to enable outputs such as an article, book proposal or skills development. Eligible applicants are early career historians within five years of submitting their corrected doctoral thesis to a UK institution (periods of parental leave, illness or caring responsibilities may be excluded), normally resident in the UK, not in full-time permanent academic employment or current doctoral students, must be RHS members, and previous scheme recipients are ineligible. Applications require a PDF CV, an academic reference, a 500-word project proposal and a 300-word funding request; proposals are assessed on quality, historical significance and financial need, with decisions typically notified about six weeks after the deadline.