Our postdoctoral Fellowship programmes are now closed for 2025-26 applications. The next round, for visits between August 2026 and July 2027, will close in April 2026.
Applications are invited for the IASH Public Engagement Fellowship. This new programme is aimed at postdoctoral researchers, typically up to three years post-PhD, who are seeking to develop their public engagement skills. The Fellowship is self-directed, focusing on your own research, which must be within the arts, humanities or social sciences, or an associated interdisciplinary field such as medical humanities.
The aim of the fellowship is to develop your public engagement skills. In your application, you should include a section on your approach to public engagement, outline any relevant experience you have had and what you have learnt from this about effective ways of engaging audiences beyond the academy. Please note that extensive prior public engagement experience is not a requirement for this fellowship.
As part of your application, we want to know about your plans for activities. These could include building networks, connecting with communities, public events, links to local and national festivals. We are looking for bold, innovative, ambitious proposals with community-building at the heart, but which are also feasible to deliver within 10 months.
Evaluation is key to public engagement. Who do you plan to involve – ages, locations, demographics? How will you monitor and evaluate engagement by a variety of publics and stakeholders? How will you build in meaningful community involvement? How will you follow up with your networks and ensure a legacy?
A short draft budget, including contingency, should be included in your proposal. If working with freelancers, such as artists or technicians, their estimated day rates should be included, which should adhere to industry standards; you cannot include any fees to pay yourself. Venue hire, catering, publicity and basic technical costs will be met by IASH, so your budget should cover fees, dissemination, archiving (e.g. film, photography, audio as appropriate) and other direct costs. Around £2,500 is available as a discrete budget for the Fellowship, with the option to apply for another £500-750 for additional on-campus activity if needed. If your project will require significant additional funding, please provide details on where you plan to apply for this.
Training will be available in a variety of outreach and public engagement skills. We do not expect applicants to already possess all the skills needed, but it is valuable to identify in your proposal those areas where you would like to develop your skills further.
We are unlikely to support proposals where significant new data collection, fieldwork or analysis needs to be carried out before the public engagement can begin. Similarly, we are not focused on low-level dissemination activities such as book launches, one-off workshops and lectures or events aimed solely at academic audiences.
A webinar was offered on Monday 9 December for postdoctoral scholars interested in applying for IASH Fellowships for academic year 2025-26. The deadline for most applications is 25 April 2025, so this session allowed time to ask questions and prepare an application.
Representatives from some of our partners spoke about the programmes, and IASH staff gave insights into the facilities and funding available, as well as hints and tips for crafting a successful application.
The webinar recording is available here.
IASH provides an enviable location in one of the world’s most intellectually inspiring cities, together with a dynamic network of international connections.
Home to the Scottish Enlightenment, Edinburgh has a rich cultural heritage of scholarship and creativity that continues to the present day. In this haven of libraries and archives, galleries and music venues – all set amid iconic architecture – IASH takes the humanities beyond campus to engage the public and work with organisations in a variety of different sectors.
The Institute welcomes visiting researchers from across the world. Since 1970, over 1,500 Fellows have stepped through our doors. Up to 28 researchers are in residence at any one time in our amazing – and eclectic – nineteenth-century building just on the edge of the University’s central campus, boasting views of the Meadows. From upwards of 70 countries, IASH Fellows form a global alumnae/i community, and many career-long connections begin at the Institute.
What does an IASH Public Engagement Fellowship offer?
IASH hosts a lively scholarly community of visiting fellows. It is a supportive environment for postdoctoral researchers, while also offering networking opportunities with successful mid-career and eminent senior scholars. The Institute occupies a historic building with private courtyard and leafy views – perfect for uninterrupted thinking, reading and writing. Yet there is also plenty of opportunity to socialise and share ideas.
In short, a 2025-2026 IASH Public Engagement Fellowship provides:
- Research visit at the University of Edinburgh for three to ten months
- Bursary* of up to a maximum of £20,000
- Public engagement budget of up to £2,500
- Dedicated office space, University e-mail and library access
- An allocated University mentor from an area relevant to the Fellows’ research interests
- Weekly Fellows’ Lunch to build community
- Collegial work-in-progress seminar series for testing new ideas
- Calendar of engaging events at the Institute and College
- Opportunities to participate in and design funded workshops, colloquia, etc at the Institute, with support from IASH staff
*) The bursary may be used to top up an existing postdoctoral Fellowship (e.g. British Academy), or as a contribution towards living expenses. Applicants are asked to indicate other sources of support for which they have applied and the expected date of outcome. No teaching is required, but successful applicants may be able to supplement the bursary by individually arranging their own concurrent teaching, though the Institute expects that a maximum commitment of 0.4 of a full-time position will be dedicated to work other than the Public Engagement Fellow’s individual research project.
Who can apply?
We warmly welcome applications from both within and beyond the University of Edinburgh. Applicants must have been awarded a doctorate at the time of application, and normally within the last three years (i.e. you should have graduated between 2022 and 2025, although earlier graduates may be eligible if they have taken significant career breaks since completing their doctorate; if you have not yet graduated, you must be able to produce a transcript, testamur, or a letter of completion/eligibility to graduate as part of your application; you do not need to have actually graduated at the time you apply). You should not have held a permanent position at a university, or a previous Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Those who have held temporary and/or short-term appointments are eligible to apply. If you have taken parental leave or other time away from academia, this will not count towards the three-year limit, but we ask that you provide brief details of why and for how long you were not working.
Application procedure
The closing date
The closing date for the receipt of the next round of applications (for visits between August 2025 and July 2026) was 17:00 GMT on 25 April 2025. Applications received after that date will not be considered. Decisions will be communicated in July. Please ensure that you supply a valid email address so that you can be contacted quickly after decisions are made.
The application form
The application portal is now closed. In your application, you should include a section on your approach to public engagement, outline any relevant experience you have had and what you have learnt from this about effective ways of engaging audiences beyond the academy. A short budget of up to £2,500, including contingency, should also be included in your proposal.
Any additional supporting documents connected with an application should be emailed to iash@ed.ac.uk.
References
- In addition to the application form, a minimum of two and a maximum of three confidential references are required.
- Applicants should ask their referees to email their reference to the Director at iash@ed.ac.uk by 25 April 2025. If references are not received by this date, your application cannot be considered.
- Referees should comment on the nature and quality of the research proposal, as well as on the qualifications of the applicant. One referee should certify the successful viva (defence) and final examination of the candidate’s PhD thesis.
Notes
- Consideration will be given to the academic record and the publications of all applicants and their capacity to disseminate their views among a community of like-minded people and the wider public. Candidates must give evidence of any contact they have made with researchers at the University of Edinburgh, are required to make such contact before submitting their applications, and those who can evidence the relevance of their proposed project to the University of Edinburgh research community will be regarded favourably. Particular weight will be placed on the quality and timeliness of the public engagement project proposed, and we encourage innovative and interdisciplinary topics and approaches.
- For information about the scope of work undertaken at the University of Edinburgh, see Edinburgh Research Explorer, or browse through the staff pages of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
- Only fully completed formal applications will be considered. It is the responsibility of each applicant to ensure that all documentation is complete, and that referees submit their reports to IASH by the closing date. Candidates may like to submit a copy of any one article or publication that is thought to be especially relevant to the research proposal and Fellowship submission. It must be emphasised, however, that no such submitted publication will be returned to the candidate.
- The Institute was established in 1969 by the then Faculty of Arts to promote enquiry of the highest standards in the Humanities, broadly conceived. It began to receive Fellows in 1970, and is now located as an independent institute within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Inter-departmental and inter-disciplinary study has always been encouraged.
- Fellows must make the Institute their main place of work for the duration of the Fellowship. It is expected that Fellows will be in residence throughout the tenure of their Fellowship and will contribute fully to the life of the Institute during that time. Fellows give at least one seminar presentation during their tenure, and submit a report on their research at the end of their Fellowship. No regular teaching is required.
- Applicants looking for suitable accommodation in Edinburgh may find these links useful.
In order to take full advantage of the seminars and lectures which take place during the semesters and to meet with staff in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, applicants are encouraged to apply for periods that will include at least part of one of the semesters.