Introducing Institutional Demand Management to the British Academy’s International Fellowships

The British Academy’s International Fellowships are a flagship opportunity for early career researchers anywhere in the world to come to the UK for two years to pursue their research in any area of the humanities and social sciences. The Academy has been seeing growing demand for International Fellowships awards in recent years, which has placed increasing pressure on the success rate of the scheme. Last year the Academy introduced a series of measures to help raise the success rate of the programme from the 2025 figure of 3.3 per cent, including relating to eligibility criteria and closing the Academy’s Global Professorships. 

The numbers of applications, however, continued to increase this year, therefore, as of the 2027 round of International Fellowships, institutional demand management will be put in place. This is providing notice that each UK eligible institution will only be able to submit applications up to 50 per cent of the expected number of awards. In 2027, this will be a maximum of eight applications per institution unless we have written separately to your institution informing you of fewer.

The Academy will set out the number of expected awards for future rounds when the next call opens. It is expected that the next call for the International Fellowships will open in early- to mid-January 2027, and close in early- to mid- March 2027.
 
If you have any questions about the changes to the scheme or your eligibility to apply under the new rules, please do get in touch with the International Department at the British Academy by emailing overseas@thebritishacademy.ac.uk.