Every year one Rome Fellowship is offered to allow an individual the unique opportunity to undertake three months of dedicated research and work on a visually focused topic relating to cultural contact, exchange and influence between Britain (including its historical Empire and Commonwealth) and Italy, whilst being based at the British School at Rome (BSR).
The award is open to scholars, researchers, curators and other galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) professionals, from immediately post-doctoral to those internationally recognised in their field of expertise. Whatever their background and current position, all applicants are expected to demonstrate a readiness to engage with Rome's art and archive collections, the BSR's own collections and/or the city as an architectural and cultural artefact.
The Paul Mellon Centre is an educational charity that champions new ways of understanding British art history and culture. Through all areas of our work, including our grants and fellowships programme, we promote activities that enhance and expand knowledge of British art and architecture. As an organisation, we pledge ourselves to ensuring that the histories of British art are enriched and made more relevant to a broader range of people in the future. The inclusion of voices, narratives and experiences that have been marginalised or excluded in the past will have a transformational impact on the future of the Centre and upon British art studies. Accordingly, the Paul Mellon Centre particularly welcomes applications from those who are under-represented within the academic field of the humanities in the UK.
The three-month Rome Fellowship based at the British School at Rome is designed to:
Facilitate original, focused and exciting research into a topic relating to British-Italian cultural contact, exchange and influence of any period from the medieval era to the contemporary. The subject area, disciplinary focus and approach may vary, but projects need to be centred on visual materials and themes, will demonstrate a rigorous understanding of the critical and historical issues, and will engage directly with local art and archive collections, the BSR's own collections and/or the city as an architectural and cultural artefact.
Recent Rome Fellow projects have focused variously on architectural and art-historical themes, on the classical heritage of Rome and its representation in film and photography, and relations between literature and aesthetics. Specific examples include:
- Robert Turnbull Macpherson and his photographic vedute of Rome in comparison to works of other photographers in his time
- Gothic revival atop the heirlooms of antiquity: Villa Mills and the Palatine Hill, ca.1818–1926
- Henry Fuseli in Rome: defining a new, heroic style for British art
Find out more about The British School at Rome here.
The Rome Fellowship provides residential accommodation and meals at the British School at Rome for three months (as well as benefits such as Italian language lessons and assistance in gaining access to resources not normally open to the public).
For applicants employed by an organisation, organisation or university there will also be an honorarium of £3,000 and up to £8,000 towards replacement staff costs, if required.
The Centre does not pay full economic costs.
For independent scholars there will be an honorarium of £7,000.
There may be additional support available for applicants with specific access needs. If this is something you would like to explore, please contact the Grants and Fellowships Manager.
If a fellow accepts full-time employment during the period of the Rome Fellowship, the Centre will request an appropriate reimbursement of the award.
The Fellowship is designed to be taken as full time for three months however split tenure could be considered depending on the BSR’s timetable.
This fellowship is designed for an individual to work on a visually focused topic relating to Anglo-Italian cultural contact, exchange and influence, of any period from the medieval era onwards.
Applications are welcome from scholars, researchers, curators, archivists and GLAM professionals, from immediately post-doctoral to those internationally recognised in their field of expertise. Applicants must have been awarded their doctorate by the closing date for applications.
All applicants are expected to demonstrate how they will engage directly with local art and archive collections, the BSR's own collections and/or the city as an architectural and cultural artefact. Applicants should demonstrate the value of being in Rome for the duration of the three months by providing specific details of the archives/collections/sites with which they wish to engage. Projects utilising the BSR’s own archives and historical records would be especially welcome. For more details about these please contact the BSR Head of Research Collections, Professor Raphaële Mouren: [email protected]
Applications are open to individuals from any country, with fluency in English and who must be either competent in the Italian language or have a willingness to engage with it. Italian language lessons are provided on site at the BSR during the residency.
The Rome Fellowship would normally be taken during one of the following three periods: late September to late December; January to March; April to June. Exact dates will be agreed with the British School at Rome. The fellowship cannot be deferred to a later academic year nor can it run concurrently with a fellowship awarded by another organisation.
Individuals applying for a fellowship cannot apply for any other award in the same round of funding.
For further questions on eligibility please contact the Grants & Fellowships Manager.
Applications are now closed, the next round will be Spring 2026.
To apply for this fellowship applicants must use our online system at grants.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk. Once registered you will be able to fill out the online application form (an example of which can be downloaded below), you will also need to provide the details of two referees. Once the application has been submitted, and the references have been received, we will check it to ensure eligibility. All accepted applications will then be read and assessed by members of our Advisory Council made up of twelve external academics and professionals with relevant expertise (you can find a list of the current members here). Three senior members of Paul Mellon Centre staff also sit on our Advisory Council. The Director of the British School at Rome also reads and assesses the Rome Fellowship applications.
The number of good applications is likely to exceed the funding available, so the Advisory Council are advised to use some or all of the following criteria to help them in making decisions on how best to allocate funding:
- academic rigour
- originality and distinctness in the context of current scholarship
- contribution to scholarship in the longer term
- timeliness, where a project is connected with a particular moment or opportunity
- where a grant would support work in a geographical or cultural context which has not hitherto been supported by PMC
- need, where the research would be unlikely to go ahead without this support
- impact and inclusion, where the research would include voices or reach a broader range of people than have hitherto been represented in the field of British art studies
We also advise applicants to read our FAQ & Guidance webpage before starting their application, our Grant Making Policy and Due Diligence Policy can also be found there.
Decisions made by the Advisory Council will be communicated to all applicants within two months of the application submission date. Given the volume of applications, we cannot guarantee individual feedback if you are unsuccessful. However, we do try to accommodate specific requests. Please email our Grants and Fellowships Manager to request this.
If you have any access requirements or experience any issues using our online grants system (or accessing and filling out the application forms) then please do contact the Grants and Fellowships Manager who will be able to assist you.
As part of the application form, you will need to provide the name and email address of two referees who are willing to submit a short reference (500 words) for you. The referees should have first-hand knowledge of the applicant’s academic career and/or the subject area for which funding is being sought. The Advisory Council would like to be informed of the originality of the subject matter and the applicant’s suitability to pursue such research. These references are an essential part of our due diligence process, and your application cannot proceed to assessment without them.
Once your application is submitted, an automatic email notification will be sent to your referees with a link that allows them to view your application and submit their reference. They will also have the option to decline the request.
The deadline for submitting references will depend on the funding round, but it is generally between 7-10 days after the application closing date. The deadline date will be clearly communicated to you and your referees during the application process. You will receive an email notification when each referee has submitted their reference. Once both references are received, your application will proceed to the assessment round.
For more guidance on the content of the references, please refer to our FAQ & Guidance page.
Please ensure you speak to your referees before including their details in the application form so they are aware of the reference requirement and the deadline. We also recommend submitting your application in advance of the closing date to allow your referees as much time as possible to complete their reference.
Each round, we encounter reference requests that are not received by the intended recipients due to misspelled email addresses. To avoid delays, please double-check that all contact details are entered correctly when submitting your application.
- Once confirmed, the Rome Fellow must confirm the dates of their Fellowship directly with the British School at Rome and inform the Paul Mellon Centre of these by the end of the year the award was made.
- On completion the Rome Fellow must submit a comprehensive written report: this would typically be around 500 words (1 page) but may be longer if required. The report should detail the research activity undertaken during the funded period and the impact of this work on the larger project. The report must be submitted within three months of the completed Fellowship, this will then be shared with the British School at Rome and Advisory Council. If there are any further future outcomes of the project outside of the Fellowship period (eg. publication, exhibition, academic papers) then the Rome Fellow should send the details of these to the Grants and Fellowships Manager.
- Fellows are also invited to submit a short research report for publication in the Papers of the British School at Rome.
- The full terms and conditions of grant awards can be read here.
Accessible Formats: There is a large text (size 20) format of this opportunity remit and application form available to download at the bottom of this page. We can also provide large or clear text formats in other sizes upon request. If you have any other access requirements regarding our website or experience any issues using our online grants system then please contact the Grants & Fellowships Manager.
Access Funding: We are committed to making our opportunities accessible to everyone. To support this, we have set aside funding to help individuals who may face additional barriers and as such incur extra costs whilst undertaking their research projects. If your application is successful, we will be happy to discuss how this funding can support your additional needs.