£900,000 per awardee British Academy Global Professorships 2022 Program for outstanding overseas scholars to work & collaborate in the UK

This programme provides mid-career to senior scholars – active in any discipline within the social sciences and the humanities and based in any country overseas – with the opportunity to work in the UK for four years.

The Global Professorships are awards for individuals in an institutional setting. Applications must be for new, coherent and cutting-edge projects. The Global Professorships are expected to add significant value to the UK host institutions and vice versa, and thus the projects must be significant, leading to novel and innovative collaborations.

With the Global Professorships, the Academy is looking to support academics that are proposing ambitious, beyond the state-of-the-art applications that break new ground. The Academy views the Global Professorships as an opportunity to apply to undertake high-risk, curiosity-driven research in the humanities and social sciences that enables the award-holders and their UK host institutions to achieve a step-change in their respective research programmes.

Aims

The aim of the programme is to attract internationally-recognised established scholars to further their individual research goals while enhancing the UK’s commitment to international research partnerships and collaboration and is intended to strengthen the UK’s research excellence and capability in the humanities and the social sciences.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must hold a doctoral degree (or have equivalent research experience).
• Applicants must be available to take up an unpaid leave of absence, a long-term secondment or employment at an eligible UK institution. If this is unclear from an applicant’s national setting, then the Academy welcomes communication with applicants prior to applications being submitted. Eligible institutions include but are not limited to the British International Research Institutes.
• Awards are only available to individuals, to be held in an institutional context. Co-applicants are not permitted.
• Awards will not be made retrospectively: this means that the work for which support is requested must not have commenced before the award is announced. Applications must be for new research ideas that are coherent on their own and are cutting-edge.
• Applicants are required to provide a formal statement of support from a senior member of their proposed host institution in the UK (normally expected to be a Pro-Vice-Chancellor or equivalent, or at minimum Head of Department/Faculty/Institute).
• Applicants are required to nominate one academic referee who is not based at the UK host institution or at the overseas institution at which the applicant is based at the time of application and is not involved in the programme of research and other activities submitted as part of the application. The statement must be provided on letter-headed paper, and must be signed and dated by the referee.

Benefits

Awards are expected to run for four years each from a starting date to be agreed with the British Academy. The starting date must not be before 1 September 2022 or after 1 February 2023.

The Academy will provide up to £900,000 per award.

Application Process

Applications must be submitted online using the British Academy’s Grant Management System, Flexi-Grant®.

Application and referee / head of department statements deadline and current UK host institution approval deadline: Wednesday 27 April 2022, 17:00 BST.

This programme is funded by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.