Deadline: October 8, 2025
Applications are open for the British Academy Talent Development Awards 2025-2026. The aim of the scheme is to enable researchers to build their skills and capacities in core areas to develop their current and future research. This includes core areas like quantitative skills, data science, digital humanities and languages. This scheme promotes the acquisition and advancement of skills in relevant areas, supporting innovative research methods, be that through skills development, collaboration or dissemination.
It is also designed for researchers who wish to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to their work and seek to advance their skills in a new area that may fall outside the traditional bounds of their subject discipline. It provides Early Career Researchers with the opportunity to develop specialist skills to support the foundations of their career. Additionally, the scheme offers mid and senior-career researchers the chance to diversify their skills and methodological approaches in response to new avenues of research interest. The scheme encourages researchers to champion their newly acquired skills within their wider community, contributing to the ongoing development of skills for future generations.
The overarching aims of the scheme are to invest in UK talent and skills, and as a result, to contribute to the development and delivery of high quality regional, national and international research by:
- raising the quality of advanced quantitative skills and/or data science skills used in research, including digital methods;
- creating new opportunities for knowledge and skills to exchange across disciplines and sectors; and
- promoting language learning and the transferable skills that language learning provides.
Benefits
- The maximum grant is £10,000. Awards are to enable engagement activities to take place and are not intended as time buy-out for the award-holder. This scheme is not offered on a Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis, and 100 per cent of the awarded funds must be used solely for the purposes outlined in the application and agreed in the award letter.
Eligibility
- Eligible Lead Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom with a current long-term appointment at a UK-based Higher Education Institution (HEI) or Independent Research Organisation (IRO), which will continue for the full duration of the proposed award. Applicants for the Talent Development Awards should be intending to pursue original, independent research in any field of study within the humanities or social sciences. There are no quotas for individual subject areas and no thematic priorities within the scheme.
- Lead Applicants who do not have a doctorate may have equivalent experience, which they should define in the personal statement section. Co-applicants may be based in the UK or overseas. They may have a doctorate or equivalent experience, or other specialist knowledge as appropriate to the aims of the scheme.
Application
The application deadline is October 8, 2025 at 17:00 BST. The award duration is for a minimum period of six months and up to a maximum period of 12 months.
For more information, visit British Academy Talent Development Awards.
