The British Academy is now accepting applications for the Mid-Career Fellowship scheme

The British Academy is now accepting applications for the Mid-Career Fellowship scheme.

The deadline for applications is 17:00 (BST) on Wednesday 20 August 2025.

Purpose of the scheme

Through this scheme, the Academy intends to both support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding of and engagement with the humanities and social sciences. The primary rationale of the scheme is, therefore, to free successful applicants from their normal academic and administrative commitments for a period of 6-12 months, to devote to the completion of a major piece of research. In addition, the Academy will look for evidence of a clear commitment to a strategy of public engagement and communication of the research outcomes during the period of the Fellowship.

Scope of the award

These awards support outstanding individual researchers and communicators who will promote public engagement and understanding of the humanities and social sciences. Awards will be judged both on the quality of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with a broad audience. Applicants are invited to indicate ways in which their proposed programme will contribute to advances in understanding, including public understanding, in their subject area and to the identification of appropriate strategic priorities in the social sciences and humanities.

Eligibility

Prospective award-holders must be employed at a UK-based university, higher education institution or independent research organisation; the Academy is looking particularly to support mid-career scholars. The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s physical age or current status in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, these awards are intended primarily to provide opportunities for researchers who have already made an outstanding contribution to their field and have achieved distinction as an excellent communicator and ‘champion’ in their field, and who would usually be within no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate. In considering eligibility, the Academy will make due allowance for applicants who have had career breaks; and for established researchers who do not have doctorates, who should be within 15 years of their first academic appointment.

Value and duration

These Fellowships are covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) framework, but the Academy’s contribution is calculated at 80 per cent of this figure, with the Academy’s contribution to the salary of the Mid-Career Fellow capped at an upper limit of £80,000. It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £152,000 (80 per cent Academy contribution to FEC). Awards can be held for a minimum of six months up to a maximum of 12 months.

Application deadline: 20 August 2025

Results expected: Late March 2026

Earliest project start date: 1 September 2026

Latest project start date: 1 January 2027

Application process

The application form is available on the Academy’s Flexi-Grant® system.

You can find further information on the scheme and instructions for the application process in the scheme guidance notes.

Contact details

Please direct any queries you may have about the scheme to grants@thebritishacademy.ac.uk