Search Results for: Open Access

Funded Book Workshops, for mid-career historians, 2024-25 – Call now open

The Society now invites applications for its Funded Book Workshops programme, 2024-25. Funded Book Workshops support historians currently writing their second or third monograph to bring together up to six specialist readers for a day to discuss a manuscript in detail, prior to its completion and submission to a publisher.

Established in 2023, Workshops support mid-career historians in the writing and development of a monograph. The Society looks to make two awards for the next round of Workshops to be held in the academic year 2024-25.

Each award provides up to £2000 to an author to host a day-long book workshop to consider a project and monograph text in detail. Funds may be spent to invite up to six scholars (based in the UK or European Union) to attend the workshop, and is intended to cover travel, hospitality and overnight accommodation where required. Where convenient, the Society welcomes applications to hold workshops at its office at University College London.

Further information on the programme is available here.

The closing date for applications for this round is Friday 9 August 2024 and we seek to inform successful applicants by late September.

Applications for this current round of Funded Book Workshops may be made vis the Society’s application platform.

In its first year, Workshops were awarded in 2023-24 to:

  • Jennifer Aston (Northumbria University) for her project: ‘For Wives Alone’: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in Nineteenth Century England and Wales
  • Tim Grady (University of Chester) for his project: ‘The Unwelcome Gravediggers’: War, Memory and the Unmaking of British-German Relations

Questions relating to this call may be sent to administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Details of other Research Funding opportunities from the Society are available here.

 

Research Funding

Allocation of research funding is central to the Society’s work of supporting historians and historical research.

In the financial year 2023/24, the Society awarded more than £130,000 in funding to historians through open competitions, generously assisted by partner organisations and donors. Details of current open calls for funding applications are provided below.

Funding is available to historians at three career stages. Please follow the links for further information on:

In 2025 the Society is running five additional funding programmes open to historians at all career stages. Please follow the links for more on our annual:

Current calls for research funding

The following programmes currently invite applications before the deadlines:

May to September 2025

  • Scouloudi Panel Grants, providing grants of £1500 per panel to enable historians to create and present panels at conferences. Panels will bring together historians at different career stages and professions, working on a common subject area to present their work. This new grant programme (2025) is reserved for members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 23 May 2025
  • Scouloudi Public History Grants, providing grants of £1000 per project to support activities between academic historians and those working outside higher education, either in the museum, archive and heritage sectors or in community history groups. This new grant programme (2025) is reserved for members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 23 May 2025
  • Postgraduate Research Support Grants providing grants of either £500 or £1,000 (based on the activity to be undertaken) to undertake historical research. Activities supported include: visiting an archive or historic site, or conducting interviews. This programme is reserved for historians who are Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society, currently studying for a Masters degree or PhD. Next closing date: Friday 6 June 2025.
  • Early Career Research Support Grants providing grants of either £500 or £1,000 (based on the activity to be undertaken) to undertake historical research. Activities supported include: visiting an archive or historic site, or conducting interviews. These grants are reserved for historians who are within 5 years of submitting their PhD in a historical subject. Applicants must also be members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 6 June 2025.

Applicants for Royal Historical Society funding must be members of the Society, with exceptions for several Postgraduate grants. To find out how to become a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member, please see our Join Us page.

Details of current holders of Research Fellowships and recipients of Research Funding are available here.

All enquiries about Research Funding should be sent to the Society’s Membership and Grants Officer at: membership@royalhistsoc.org.

HEADER IMAGE: Bowl with a scholar, anon, c.1575-99, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, public domain.

 

RHS COVID-19 Hardship Grants for UK Early Career (ECR) Historians

The Royal Historical Society (RHS) has launched (7 May 2020) an emergency funding scheme in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This global crisis confronts us all with a series of unprecedented challenges. For History ECRs, these may include any or all of acute financial hardship, mandatory physical relocation, family and community disruptions, new demands on carers, mental and/or physical health concerns and loss of access to research support and resources.

The Society’s ECR Hardship Grants are intended to help mitigate these damaging circumstances. We recognise that the resources we are able to offer are very modest given the scale of the current crisis and that it is highly likely that demand will outstrip supply. We encourage PhD students confronting these challenges to apply, where possible, to their institution’s hardship funding scheme prior to any application to the RHS 2020 Hardship Scheme.

This scheme is not designed to provide a ‘top-up’ grant for funded students or recent postdoctoral researchers in stable employment: it is an emergency, short-term intervention to offer some material assistance in the COVID-19 context, rather than to fund a specific research output or publication.

Please note that our usual grant schemes are still running, and we encourage innovative applications to support research and the costs associated with virtual events at this time.

How do I apply?

Please ensure that you have read all of the information below.

To make an application please complete the online application form. Please note that you can access the Hardship Grant application form through the Research/Conference Grants program within the RHS applications portal.

The next (2nd) deadline is Monday 29 June 2020.

 

Eligibility

For the purposes of this emergency funding scheme (as is the case with our standard Conference Travel scheme) applicants will be considered eligible who are:

  • registered for a PhD/DPhil or an MPhil in a historical subject at a UK institution. Registration may be full-time or part-time.
  • within two years (at the time of the application) of receiving their doctorate from a UK institution, and who are not yet in full-time employment. Please note the two years does not include any periods of maternity or paternity leave. Please detail this in the ‘any other information’ section of your application form.

Purpose of the Scheme

The main purpose of these awards is to support ECR historians whose finances (and thus well-being) have suffered significant detriment due to the impact of COVID-19.  Specifically the grants are intended to support research-active History postgraduates and ECRS:

  • who were actively undertaking historical research in the UK prior to the government restrictions imposed in March 2020 and who are now suffering financial hardship as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • who are NEITHER in receipt of full-time funding for their doctorate NOR in full-time employment;
  • whose contracts at universities or heritage organisations have been significantly reduced or terminated prematurely in response to COVID-19;
  • whose fixed-term fellowships (for example, to a research library) have been cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis;
  • who would normally expect to work part-time AND/OR on a zero-hours contract.
  • who normally work to support their studies and need to leave external employment to undertake caring responsibilities due to COVID-19;
  • who need to leave external employment for health reasons (including pregnancy or disability);
  • who need temporarily to relocate their place of residence due to COVID-19;
  • who are awaiting viva and unable to find employment.

Within both broad categories of eligible applicants (doctoral and postdoctoral), the lists of eligible precipitating factors outlined above are intended to be illustrative rather than fully comprehensive.

The grants are intended to help support ECR historians’ wellbeing and thus to enhance their ability to undertake future historical research.  The awards are intended to support History researchers (including research-active historians who teach in universities or work in the heritage sector), rather than the production of specific pieces of historical research, in a time of global crisis.

Who is not eligible?

Due to the limits of our available funding and our modest staff numbers, we regret that we are not able to open these awards to all History ECRs.  Specifically this scheme is not able to support:

  • PhD students in receipt of full funding;
  • applicants in full-time ongoing paid employment or who have been furloughed under the government scheme;
  • PhD students who have suspended their studies for reasons other than directly related to COVID-19;
  • PhD students who are registered at universities outside the UK;
  • Recent recipients of a UK History PhD who were not normally resident and employed in the UK as of March 2020;
  • ECRs who are in receipt of or due a redundancy payment from their employer;

What are the criteria for selection?

Our selection criteria are intended to be broad and flexible, affording the grant awarding panel appropriate leeway to respond to and accommodate novel circumstances and needs in the rapidly changing context of Covid-19.

Please note that:

  • Only fully completed applications can be considered;
  • Applicants must meet all of the relevant eligibility requirements for their status (either PhD student or recent recipient of the PhD) to be considered for a hardship grant;
  • Unfunded PhD students may be given priority over part-funded PhD students;
  • Post-doctoral applicants on zero-hour contracts may be given priority over applicants on fixed-term contracts;
  • To the extent that the selection committee can identify the cases of the greatest financial need, these applications will be given priority.

How (and how many) grants will be allocated?

Individual grants of up to £500 will be awarded by a combination of 1) assessment of eligibility and need, and 2) a lottery system.

Specifically:

  • In the first instance, the RHS aims to fund at least 12 hardship grants of up to £500 each, in each of 2 application cycles.
  • If demonstrated need significantly exceeds this sum, the Society shall seek to increase the number of awards available in round 2 by fund-raising or other means and/or to add a 3rd round of hardship funding;
  • Each application will be assessed to confirm that the applicant meets all eligibility criteria;
  • All eligible applications will then be assessed for their degree of demonstrated financial need;
  • If the number of eligible applications demonstrating substantial need exceeds the supply of RHS hardship grants, applications demonstrating the highest need will be allocated by a lottery system. Allocation of awards by lottery is an innovative development in international research funding.  In the current context, the lottery’s benefits as a selection tool include not only its tendency to reduce the scope for conscious or unconscious bias but also its speed of operation.
  • Applications entered into the first lottery that are not selected for funding will be automatically resubmitted to the 2nd lottery unless the applicant directs otherwise.
  • Applicants that are not selected are welcome to re-apply to the next round with additional information, particularly if circumstances change. Applicants should note that this is a re-application in such cases.

When will applicants be notified?

All applicants will be notified of the result of their application within a month of the deadline.

Questions and Answers

  • Do I need to be an ECR Member of the RHS to apply?
    • No. Although the Society welcomes applications to its ECR Membership, its funding schemes apply equally to eligible ECRs regardless of their RHS membership status;
  • If I receive an RHS Hardship grant, will my eligibility to apply in future for standard RHS funding (for research trips or conferences) be affected?
    • No. Receipt of a hardship award will not be considered if you subsequently apply for a standard RHS award and thus will not be ‘counted’ against your total eligibility (currently twice as a PhD student and once as a postdoctoral ECR) for our standard funding schemes.  This is an exceptional discretionary award to support you at a critical time and does not affect your broader eligibility to apply to the RHS to support your research.
  • Do I need to be a UK citizen to receive a RHS Hardship grant?
    • Non-UK nationals are eligible to receive awards as long as they meet the eligibility criteria detailed above.
  • Are part-time students eligible for support?
    • Yes, part-time students are eligible for this programme.
  • How will my award be paid?
    • Awards will be paid into a UK bank account.
  • I am registered for a PhD at a UK university but am an international student and have travelled home because of COVID-19. Am I still eligible to apply?
    • If you remain registered at a UK university for the History PhD/DPhil you remain eligible for hardship funding (which will be paid to your UK bank account).
  • Why is the RHS asking applicants to provide information on their employer and disrupted employment?
    • The Society recognises that if the COVID-19 crisis lasts for several months and/or resurfaces we may need to make longer-term adjustments to our funding for ECRs.  Information on the types of employment most disrupted to the detriment of ECRs will allow us to make appropriate accommodations in our own funding and to advocate for good practice with employers. All personal information will only be held by the RHS for the length of time needed to administer and assess the outcomes of this scheme. No personal information will be shared with employers.
  • Do I need to submit receipts to document my expenditure from the Hardship Grant?
    • We understand that in this crisis many different types of expenditure—including, but not only, groceries, medications, accommodation, equipment, relocation costs and costs entailed by caring responsibilities—may justifiably be accrued by applicants and we trust them to expend their grants to the best effect to maintain their well-being during this crisis.
  • Do I need to progress or to complete a specific piece of research with the use of any Hardship Grant
    • No. The hardship grants are designed to support you as a History researcher and a person, not to fund the production of specific historical outputs. We recognise that many History researchers may be unable to undertake research at this time.
  • Do I need to submit a report to the RHS detailing my use of RHS Hardship grant funds?
    • No. Unlike our standard scheme, no formal report is required after the award has been used.  We welcome contributions to our blog, Historical Transactions, but understand that the current COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath may limit and/or preclude many applicants’ capacity to undertake such writing.
  • Do I need to acknowledge RHS Hardship grant support in my PhD dissertation or publications?
    • Not unless you want to. This is an exceptional scheme for exceptional circumstances, and unlike our standard awards the RHS has no expectation that this support will be formally acknowledged by recipients in their scholarly work.

Contact us

All enquiries should be sent to Imogen Evans, RHS Administrative Secretary at adminsecretary@royalhistsoc.org.

 

Postgraduate Research Funding

 

The Society provides the following four funding programmes for historians studying for a Masters degree or PhD in History at a UK university. Each programme runs annually. Follow the links for further details, including timetables for applications.

Postgraduate historians are also eligible to apply for the Society’s annual Workshop Grants and Jinty Nelson Teaching Grants.

Please note: to apply for a PGR Research Support Grant or the Martin Lynn Scholarship you must be a Postgraduate Member of the Society. If wish to join the Society, please see the Postgraduate Membership section of the Join Us page.

1. Masters’ Scholarships

Launched in 2022, Masters’ Scholarships support recent graduates, from groups underrepresented in academic History, in studying for an MA degree in History at a UK university. Open to all prospective MA students in History who meet the programme’s application criteria.

2. PhD Fellowships 

Our annual PhD Fellowships provide support for historians who are completing a PhD in History. Recipients hold the fellowships jointly with the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of London. Open to all PhD students in the third year of a History PhD at a UK university.

3. Postgraduate Research Support Grants

Provide funding to enable students to undertake historical research. Activities covered by Postgraduate Research Support Grants include: visiting an archive or historic site, or conducting interviews. Open to Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society.

4. Martin Lynn Scholarship in African History

Awarded annually, the Martin Lynn Scholarship supports research in any field of African history. Open to Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society.

All enquiries about Research Funding should be sent to the Society’s Membership and Grants Officer at: membership@royalhistsoc.org.

HEADER IMAGE: The Ladies Bill of Fare, or, a Copious Collection of Beaux, 1795, plate, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain.

 

ECH Grants: Post-doctoral projects

For post-doctoral projects: Very few historians gain permanent academic employment immediately upon completion of the PhD degree.  Most historians who succeed in gaining such posts experience one or more years of part-time or fixed-contract teaching, or serving as a research assistant on a senior academic’s grant, while they build a publication profile.  Gaining an external postdoctoral fellowship in your own name during this period will allow you to focus on publishing your doctoral research, and crafting a new postdoctoral research programme.  In the UK, postdoctoral fellowships are often advertised in Jobs.ac.uk (http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ ). But you should also keep an eye on the Tuesday edition of the Guardian newspaper:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/higher-education
H-Net http://www.h-net.org/ and the TLS.
Most postdoctoral schemes advertise with only one application deadline per year.  If you start investigating possibilities a year before your PhD viva, you will know well in advance which deadlines you will be eligible to apply for, based on your viva date.

  • British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships: This highly competitive fellowship scheme is open to UK or EEA nationals and persons who have completed a PhD in the UK, within 3 years of completion of the doctorate. An outline application is made in the autumn; short-listed candidates complete a more detailed application in the New Year.  The scheme funds up to 3 years of postdoctoral research.  In preparing your application, it is essential to liaise carefully and well in advance with the proposed host institution and supervisor, which must support your application: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/Postdoctoral_Fellows.cfm
  • European Research Council Starting Grants: These grants are designed for researchers with 2-7 years of postdoctoral experience. If planning to apply for an ERC award, make use of any and all training events organised by your home institution as ERC applications are quite bureaucratic: http://erc.europa.eu/starting-grants
  • Economic & Social Research Council: Historians of any nationality with a social science emphasis are eligible to apply for ESRC Future Research Leaders postdocs within 4 years of submission of the PhD. It is essential to liaise well in advance with your proposed host institution, which must demonstrate a robust programme of support for your research.  The application deadline for this scheme is normally in the autumn.  See: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/
  • European University Institute: The EUI, based in Florence, offers a number of residential postdoctoral fellowships for ECRs. Details are available from:
    http://www.eui.eu/ProgrammesAndFellowships/Fellowships.aspx
  • Fulbright: The US Fulbright Commission offers a postdoctoral fellowships, which can be held at US universities. If applying for a Fulbright, give serious thought to applying outside the US equivalent of the ‘Golden Triangle’—that is, the north-east coast, Chicago and California.  The scheme is designed to send Fulbright postdocs throughout the US.  By applying to be based at an appropriate university outside these areas you may enhance your chances of success.  For application details, see:
    http://www.fulbright.org.uk/study-in-the-usa/short-term-study/postdoctoral-study-and-research
  • Humanities Centres & Institutes of Advanced Study: Both within and outside the UK, these specialist research institutes often offer residential postdoctoral fellowships that typically range for 3-24 months and provide some combination of office space, library access, research funding, salary or stipend and/or housing.  Examples include:  Central European University IAS, Budapest :  https://ias.ceu.hu/Junior_Senior CRASSH, Cambridge University: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/fellowships ; IASH, Edinburgh University: http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/fellowships/ ;  Simon Fellowships, Manchester University: http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/simonhallsworth/fellows/ ;  and Warwick IAS.
  • Institute of Historical Research, London: The IHR serves as the umbrella organisation for a number of postdoctoral fellowships funded by UK scholarly societies and charities, including the RHS, the Economic History Society and the Past & Present Society. Applications are typically accepted from January to c. March each year.  See http://www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/junior
  • Junior Research Fellowships: JRFs, typically of 3 years’ duration, are advertised each year by several Cambridge and Oxford colleges, and occasionally by other UK universities.  Some JRFs are open to postdoctoral researchers in any field of study; others specify history as an eligible or desired field of appointment.  For Cambridge JRFs see: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/ ; for Oxford advertisements, see the Oxford Gazette:  http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/currentvacancies/
  • Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships: ECRs with a recent UK PhD or a fixed-term (not permanent) UK academic appointment are eligible for this scheme, which funds 3-year postdoctoral fellowships with limited teaching duties. Because the host institution must share at least 50% of the cost of the fellowship with the Leverhulme Trust, not all universities support applications.  Investigate whether your preferred institution supports application in the autumn, to ensure that you can locate a host institution well in advance of the February application deadline.  (Many institutions have internal deadlines for this scheme that are significantly earlier than the Leverhulme’s deadline).  Note that you cannot apply to hold this award at the institution from which you obtained your PhD.  For details, see http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/ecf/ecf.cfm
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowships: These European Commission awards fund 2-3 year postdoctoral fellowships with generous funding for relocation, research costs and salary. The scheme’s emphasis is on mobility, so expect to hold the award if successful in a country other than the country of your PhD.  Advance planning and communication with your proposed host institution is essential.  The UK Research Office https://www.ukro.ac.uk/mariecurie/Pages/default.aspx offers helpful workshops about these applications annually at various locations in the UK, and many universities also offer specialist guidance on applications, which are highly competitive.
    For details of the scheme, see http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/
  • Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships: The US Mellon Foundation funds a number of humanities-based postdoctoral fellowships which combine teaching and research. Most are based in the US or Canada, but a few UK institutions also offer Mellon postdocs.
  • Specialist Libraries: Several of the specialist libraries noted above under ‘Research Trips’ also offer 3-24 month residential fellowships for national and/or international postdoctoral research fellows. See their websites for details and deadlines.
  • Wellcome Fellowships: The Wellcome Trust funds a number of multi-year postdoctoral fellowships each year in the medical humanities (including history of medicine and history of science).

 

 

 

 

 

Royal Historical Society Library

The Society’s Library comprises more than 1000 books of specialist historical interest, dating from the sixteenth century to the 2020s. With two reading rooms, the Library is located within the main library of University College London, next to the RHS Office and Council Chamber.

 

 

RHS Fellows and Members are welcome to visit the Society’s Library, and also the main UCL collection. Access and use of UCL’s wider History collections is one benefit of joining the Fellowship.

About the Library collection

The RHS Library holds more than 1000 secondary works of historical scholarship on open shelves. The collection comprises antiquarian titles (often gifted by prominent former members of the Society, such as the library of George W. Prothero), the publications of UK record and local history societies, and reference works.

Also available are monographs published by the RHS (including the ‘Studies in History’ and ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series); and complete sets of the Society’s journal, Transactions (1872-2021) and the Camden Series of primary sources (1838-2021).

Listings of these items is available here (open as pdfs):

  • For details of the complete series of the Society’s journal, see the Transactions page of the RHS website.
  • For details of the complete series of the Society’s Camden Series, see the Camden page of the RHS website.

 

RHS reading room and UCL History collections

 

Information services and contacts

The Library also maintains a listing of UK and Irish historical and record societies providing contacts for research; a number of publications for these societies are available in the RHS collection and the UCL History Library.

 

RHS Scouloudi Panel Grants

RHS Panel Grants support the formation of panels to present, in-person, research on a shared historical theme at an academic conference, or equivalent event, in history or a cognate discipline. Launched in 2025, this is the first year of a new programme which is generously supported by the Scouloudi Foundation.

About the Panel Grants programme

The scheme will support the creation of panels, of up to four principal participants, whose formation would not otherwise have been possible, in their entirety due to an absence of financial support. 

In establishing this programme, the Society seeks to make possible collaborative conference participation and research dissemination at a time when budgets for event attendance and travel are being cut for many. The scheme also aims to support panel membership by independent historians with no access to funding for conference participation.

The Society expects to make up to two awards, of £1500 per panel, in this first round of Scouloudi Panel Grants.

The call for this first round opens on Wednesday 19 March and will close on Friday 23 May 2025.

Applications must be submitted via the Society’s applications portal >

Grants support historians to form panels to present historical work, in-person, on a shared theme, at a specific conference or equivalent. Funding of £1500 per panel will be made available to support the following costs associated with the creation of and presentation by a panel:

  • conference or event attendance fees;
  • travel to the conference, in line with the Society’s expenses and carbon policy;
  • accommodation, if required, and reasonable expenses for the duration of the conference.

The venue of the specified conference will depend on the location of panel members. However, the extent of funding available means grants will most likely be given for panels taking place in a home country or a close neighbouring country: for example, for UK applicants this will most likely mean attendance at an event in the United Kingdom or Europe.

Eligibility and making an application for a Panel Grant, 2025-26

Applications are invited for panels that address a coherent and common subject area, relating (but not limited) to:

  • any historical topic or question, not limited by chronology or geography
  • historical methodologies and practice;
  • approaches to historical study and its promotion, e.g. public history, work by historians across professional sectors, interdisciplinary working with other practitioners in the arts, humanities, social sciences and/or STEM;
  • teaching and/or the communication of history;
  • analysis of and advocacy for the historical discipline and profession in higher education or other sectors.

Grants are available to historians those who are:

  • at any career stage, from advanced PhD onwards;
  • working either in higher education or as a professional historian in a related sector, e.g. museums, archives, heritage or broadcasting;
  • engaged in scholarly research as an independent historian.

Successful panel applications will:

  • comprise between three and four principal participants (independent of a chair) of whom at least one panellist (as lead applicant) will be a current Fellow or Member of the Royal Historical Society;
  • involve speakers from at least two different institutions or organisations, where applicable;
  • combine speakers at a range of career stages and backgrounds, including at least one early career historian (current completing or within five years of completion of a PhD);
  • seek to bring into dialogue practitioners from a range of backgrounds: e.g. higher education; museum, archives and heritage; schools; and public or community history groups;
  • be able to demonstrate the need for RHS funding to establish the panel due to the absence of alternative financial support;
  • undertake a panel at a recognised academic conference held no later than 31 July 2026;
  • promote their panel as supported by the award of a ‘Scouloudi Panel Grant from by Royal Historical Society’;
  • provide a short report for the Society on the panel as a collaborative exercise and its contribution to historical understanding, knowledge and/or practice, of value to others;
  • will receive an initial provisional award, followed by the transfer of funds on confirmation that their panel has been accepted by the conference (if confirmation is not possible by the date of this programme’s close and decision-making).

When awarding grants, primary consideration will be given to the proposed quality and value of the panel; the distinctiveness of a panel’s composition, drawing on historians’ varied affiliations within and beyond higher education; the suitability of a panel to the specified conference; and a demonstrable need for funding to facilitate the activity. 

In this and all similar awards, the Society is keen to support historians who lack access to alternative resources (institutional or other) to enhance their work, or where funding opportunities are very limited.

Applications must be submitted via the Society’s applications portal >

Questions about the Scouloudi Panel Grants, 2025-26, may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

Bibliography of British and Irish History

Until 31 December 2024, the Society was a partner in the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH). The Bibliography is the most comprehensive and accurate guide available to what’s been published in British and Irish history over the past 100 years.

From January 2025, the Bibliography remains a research and publishing project of the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of London, and the Belgian publisher, Brepols. It is edited by staff at the Institute of Historical Research, with specialist academic advisers acting as section editors. 

From 2025, and with thanks to Brepols, Fellows and Members of the Society remain able to subscribe to the Bibliography at a significantly reduced rate. Those interested in taking up this RHS membership offer should contact: administration@royalhistsoc,org, marking their email ‘BBIH’.

From November 2024, the Bibliography has a new search interface, offering a new look to the resource. For more on this, please see here.

What does BBIH offer historians of Britain and the British world?

  • contains 660,000+ records of books, edited collections, journal articles and book chapters;
  • includes details of history publications from the early 1900s to the current year;
  • adds regular online updates of c.10,000 new publications each year;
  • covers the history of the British Isles, the former empire and Commonwealth, the British world, and Britons’ activities on the global stage, from Roman Britain to the 21st century;
  • contains publications relating to British influence in Europe, the trans-Atlantic and informal empire;
  • searchable via a range of options. These include: by author, title of publication, subject area, period and places covered, publication type and date/s of publication;
  • offers cross-searchability with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, The National Register of Archives and IHR digital resources including ‘Reviews in History’ and British History Online.

What makes BBIH a key research tool?

  • BBIH has been created using systematic and extensive surveys of data on all relevant new publications, including weekly reviews of 800 academic journals and records of new acquisitions by the British Library;
  • Provides links to individual publications in your library or a union catalogue, along with links to Google Books, selected on-line book reviews, and full text versions of articles;
  • BBIH enables you to create your own comprehensive bibliography on any topic, using a range of a variety export formats (including Refworks and EndNote);
  • Generates email updates of new publications relevant to your research interests.

Access or subscribe to BBIH

The Bibliography of British and Irish History is an online subscription service that’s available via a very wide range of UK higher education institutions and research libraries, as well as universities and libraries worldwide.

  • For members of subscribing institutions, access is available either via your library’s website or via Brepols’ online portal website: www.brepolis.net;
  • Institutions wishing to subscribe to BBIH can obtain a 30-day free trial period, along with a price quotation and details on a licence agreement. One-year trials are now also available with 50% discount; UK institutions are priced according to JISC bandings. For further information, please email: brepolis@brepols.net;
  • Individual subscriptions to BBIH are also available, with significant discounts for Fellows and Members of the RHS. For further enquiries, please email: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

For further information about the Bibliography and its use in research and teaching, see the BBIH pages on the IHR website.

 

Early Career Research Support Grants

 

Early Career Research Support Grants provide funds to early career historians (historians who are within 5 years of submitting their PhD in a historical subject) to undertake research. Applicants must also be members of the Royal Historical Society.

Activities supported include: visiting an archive or historic site, or conducting interviews. This grant cannot be used to support attendance at, or production of a conference.

Please note that within your application you will be asked to provide information on any current employment (if applicable) and access to related or other research funding support. This information will be reviewed by the RHS Research Support Committee and may be used in prioritising applications for funding support, however access to other sources of funding will not alone invalidate your application. You will also be asked to supply an academic reference.

In 2025, grants of either £500 or £1000 per grant (based on the research activity to be undertaken) will be awarded by the Society. The remaining closing dates for applications in 2025 are as follows:

  • Friday 6 June 2025
  • Friday 5 December 2025

Applications for Early Career Research Support Grants are invited via the Society’s applications portal.

Further notes on eligibility:

  • Early Career Research Support Grants are reserved for those who are members of the Royal Historical Society. To join the Society, please see here.
  • Funding is reserved for research projects that are both clearly and predominantly historical in orientation, with a specific chronological remit.
  • Applicants who have previously been awarded an ‘Early Career Research Support Grant’ will not be eligible for further funding under this scheme.
  • Applications for funding for research taking place within 4 weeks of the application deadline will not be considered.
  • Applications for retroactive research visits/activities will not be considered.

All applications for the Early Career Research Support Grants are reviewed by the RHS Research Support Committee, formed of members of the Society’s Council. Review of applications will not take place until the deadline for submission has passed. An average timeline for review, ratification and notification of the outcome of an application is around six weeks after the deadline.

Please note that all applications, successful or otherwise, will be directly notified of their outcome.

Early Career Research Support Grant recipients in 2024

  • Thomas Burnham – awarded February 2024
  • Nicolò Ferrari – awarded February 2024
  • Yui Chim Lo – awarded February 2024
  • Mariana Zegianini – awarded February 2024
  • James Brocklesby – awarded August 2024
  • Adam Quibell – awarded August 2024
  • Taiwo Bello – awarded August 2024
  • Matthew Bayly – awarded August 2024
  • Thomas Wright – awarded January 2025
  • Jocelyn Zimmerman – awarded January 2025
  • Katherine Burns – awarded January 2025
  • Jessica Venner – awarded January 2025

HEADER IMAGE: Henry Heide Confectionary Co.- Seven Buildings Occupied by the Business, after 1882, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain.

 

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