The Chevening British Library Fellowship is a collaboration between the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office and the British Library, offering international experts a year-long professional project-based placement.
The Chevening Fellowship offers a fully funded research opportunity that includes project, fellowship-related and living expenses, and return economy airfare.
Fellows will have the privilege of working with the extensive library’s collections and benefit from the broad range of professional expertise of library staff.
Requirements:
To be eligible for a Chevening British Library Fellowship, you must:
- Demonstrate the potential to rise to positions of leadership and influence
- Demonstrate that you possess the personal, intellectual, and interpersonal attributes reflecting this potential.
- Be a citizen of the listed countries, outlined respectively in the fellowship theme pages.
- Return to your country of citizenship at the end of the period of the fellowship.
- Have a postgraduate level qualification (or equivalent professional training or experience in a relevant area) at the time of application.
- Have significant professional and/or academic research experience (at least five years).
- Be currently employed or a currently enrolled PhD candidate (PhD must not be with a UK/EU or USA university).
- Provide evidence of meeting at least the minimum English language abilities for Chevening Awards.
- Not hold British or dual British citizenship.
- Not be an employee, a former employee, or relative* of an employee of Her Majesty’s Government, or have been within the last two years from the opening of Chevening applications (including British embassies/high commissions; the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy; Department for International Trade; the Ministry of Defence; and the Home Office), or a staff member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
Eligible Countries:
There are two available Chevening fellowships in 2026 at the British Library;
- Chevening Overseas Territories in the Atlantic and Caribbean British Library Fellowship: open to applications from Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, St Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands.
- Chevening Southeast Europe British Library Fellowship: open to applications from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.
Duration and Reward
- 12-month period of project-based activity at the British Library.
- Living expenses for the duration of the fellowship.
- Return economy airfare from your home country to the UK.
- Allowance package for fellowship-related activities.
- Up to £1,000 for approved project-related expenses.
- Access to a programme of cultural events and activities organised by the FCDO and the Chevening Secretariat
Course/programme structure
Fellows will undertake a period of professional project-based activity at the British Library, receiving support and supervision from library staff. Please note that this fellowship is not suitable for those wanting to pursue their own research.
Please read through the detailed theme profiles below for more information about this years themes.
Method of Application
Click Here to Apply
Application Deadline: May 15, 2026.
