Academics at UK universities and Higher Education Institutions are now invited to collaborate with the British Library on jointly-supervised PhD studentships fully funded for four years through the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships scheme. The British Library are seeking four PhD projects, to start in October 2026, developed on the basis of our specially selected research themes.

You can read more about the aims of the Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships and the benefits of the programme on the British Library website.

The research themes are:

The Dispersal of Manuscripts From the Cotton Library
Libraries, Literacy and Learning in Leeds
Rediscovering a Woman Collector at the British Library: New Sources and Perspectives on Sarah Sophia Banks
Cold-War Socialism, Non-Alignment and Anti-Colonialism in the Yugoslav Press, 1961-1979

Deadline: 17:00, Friday 28 November 2025

To apply, applicants should email pgr@bl.uk stating the research theme they are interested in. They will then be sent an application pack to complete.

More information here