Senior Fellowships are offered annually to academics, established scholars or senior museum professionals in the field of British art either to complete a manuscript or book for publication or to undertake a sustained period of research towards a major project.
They are designed to release Fellows from teaching and/or other employment responsibilities and provide them with a defined period to devote to writing or research.
The Fellowship is an award of £60,000 to cover a period of 12 months.
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.
Applications are now closed, the next round will be Spring 2026.
Twelve month full-time Senior Fellowships are specifically designed for:
- The completion of a book or other such major study for immediate publication
- A period of sustained research for a clearly defined major project which will lead to a publication, a catalogue or an exhibition
Senior Fellowships are awards of £60,000, this can be taken as either:
- Replacement teaching or staff costs and paid directly to either the Fellow’s University or organisation
- A lump-sum grant if the Fellow is an independent or freelance scholar
The Centre does not pay full economic costs.
If an independent Fellow accepts full-time employment during the period of the Senior Fellowship, the Centre will request an appropriate reimbursement of the award.
Our funding programme supports scholarship, academic research and the dissemination of knowledge in the fields of British art and architectural history, and of British visual culture understood more broadly, from the medieval period to the present day. All supported topics must have a clear art-historical perspective, including those that focus on recent or contemporary artistic practice. All applications must demonstrate that British art, architecture or visual culture provides a substantial focus for their project. Applications will be assessed according to their academic rigour, originality, and contribution to scholarship. We do not fund research projects focusing on archaeology, current architecture practice, or the performing arts.
To apply for a Senior Fellowship you must be a prominent and established scholar in the field of British art or architectural history, ideally with a significant publishing record.
Senior Fellowships can be taken at any point between April 2026 and December 2027. Fellowships cannot be deferred to later years nor can they run concurrently with a Fellowship awarded by another organisation.
Applications for shorter periods than twelve months will not be accepted. 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 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 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 Senior Fellow must inform the Grants and Fellowships Manager of the dates of their Fellowship by the end of the year the award was made.
- On completion the Senior 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 Advisory Council. If there are any further future outcomes of the project outside of the Fellowship period (eg. publication, exhibition, academic papers) then the Senior Fellow should send the details of these to the Grants and Fellowships Manager.
- The full terms and conditions of grant awards can be read here.