The Institute is pleased to offer a range of postdoctoral and early-career Fellowships for recent graduates. Closing dates for application are late February and late April each year for visits in the following academic year.
The theme for 2025-26 will be Making A Nation. Please see the theme description on our News page. It is important to note that we still welcome applications on all topics and in all areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences to continue IASH’s traditional interdisciplinary work across CAHSS schools, alongside Making A Nation.
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.
Our most popular scheme is the Postdoctoral Fellowship (up to 10 months), offering about 10 places per year to postdocs from around the world working in any discipline within the arts, humanities and social sciences. Our newest Fellowship programme, the Public Engagement Fellowship, is aimed at postdoctoral researchers seeking to develop their public engagement skills. The RACE.ED Stuart Hall Foundation Fellowship (3 to 10 months) is designed to support research that engages meaningfully with the works of Stuart Hall, building on the Institute Project on Decoloniality from 2021-24. Scholars working on gender and sexualities studies are encouraged to apply for the GENDER.ED Postdoctoral Fellowship (3 to 10 months).
Historians may be interested in the Daiches-Manning Memorial Fellowship in 18th-Century Scottish Studies (2 to 6 months), while archaeologists can apply for the IASH-HCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (3-10 months). Scholars with an interest in digital arts, digital humanities, digital education, digital design and digital social sciences may wish to apply for the Digital Research Postdoctoral Fellowship (3 to 6 months). Researchers working in the field of contemporary Islam and Muslim culture can apply for the IASH-Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellowship (3 to 10 months), while scholars in public theology can apply for the IASH-CTPI Duncan Forrester Fellowship (3 to 10 months).
Scholars wishing to examine specific special collections held at the University of Edinburgh can apply for the Heritage Collections Research Fellowship (3 to 6 months), while special collections in Scotland's national museums are the focus of the new IASH-National Museums Scotland Fellowship (3 to 10 months). The Environmental Humanities Visiting Research Fellowship (minimum of 2 months) is open to researchers in the environmental humanities, while those working in the social sciences, political science, sociology, international relations, social anthropology, sustainable development and associated fields may wish to apply for the IASH-SSPS Research Fellowship (2 to 4 months).
While most of our schemes are open to scholars from any country, some are targeted at scholars from specific countries; for Indian nationals, we offer the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship (3 months), and US citizens or foreign nationals in the US or permanent residents affiliated with a US institution may apply for the American Philosophical Society Fellowship (2 to 4 months). We also recently launched the British Council 90th Anniversary Research Fellowship (12 months) for postdoctoral researchers based in any ODA-recipient country where the British Council operates. Lastly, early career researchers who already have their own funding but wish to be affiliated to the University of Edinburgh may apply for the Visiting Research Fellowship (minimum of 2 months), which provides an office at IASH but is not accompanied by a bursary.
