In November 2025, the Royal Historical Society, Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and publisher DC Thomson launched a new Applied History Fellowship partnership to support recent post-doctorate historians.
The Fellowships offer a bursary of £12,000 per award for a 6 month period. Fellowships will normally be held between April and September 2026.
Applications for the opening round of Applied History Fellowships, for 2026, have now closed (31 January 2026).
This initiative responds to three pressing challenges: i). the need to build sustainable bridges across different parts of the history community; ii). the deeply challenging academic job market; and iii). the need to advocate for the utility of history beyond the HE sector.
The new Applied History Fellowships seek to expand the range of futures open to early career historians and to enhance the applied skills of those who do pursue a university career.
They will provide financial and practical support for those wishing to develop the wider impact and application of their academic work. The Fellowship provides time to develop publication, impact and engagement profiles. It also facilitates a two-day a week online placement with The Social History Archive (TSHA) so that Fellows can develop skills within a commercial history context.
Successful Fellows will become members of the IHR and be offered a 12-month free Associate Fellowship of the Society, whose Councillors will also provide professional mentoring. Fellows will also be invited to become members of the TSHA editorial board.
Applied History Fellowships will be available to historians who have:
- expertise in the British and Irish History of the modern world (post 1500)
- submitted, or will have submitted, their PhD to a UK university between 31st January 2025 and 31st January 2026.
- a right to work that extends for the duration of the fellowship.
- not previously held another Fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research.
Shortlisted candidates will be given two week’s access to The Social History Archive and asked to present a project idea. The task will be to research and propose a thematic collection addressing in less than 500 words:
- The datasets and/or newspapers they intend to include and why;
- The justification for creating it;
- The academic(s) we should involve to write contextual content and why they would do this. Candidates must also write a short (500 word) introduction aimed at informing potential users about it.
Full details of this stage will be provided upon shortlisting.
The Fellowships offer a bursary of £12,000 for the 6 month period. If travel is required as part of the placement, travel costs will be provided by TSHA. Fellowships will normally be held between April and September 2026.
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