Applications are now open for the British Academy Talent Development Awards for 2025-2026! This fantastic initiative is all about helping researchers enhance their skills and capabilities in key areas that will boost their current and future research endeavors. We’re talking about essential fields like quantitative skills, data science, digital humanities, and languages. The program is designed to foster the development and enhancement of skills that support innovative research methods, whether that’s through skill-building, collaboration, or sharing findings.
It’s also a great fit for researchers looking to take an interdisciplinary approach to their work, allowing them to expand their expertise into new areas that might not typically fall within their main discipline. Early Career Researchers will find this opportunity particularly valuable as it helps them build specialized skills that lay a strong foundation for their careers. Plus, mid and senior-career researchers can use this scheme to broaden their skill sets and methodological approaches in response to emerging research interests. The program encourages researchers to share their newly acquired skills with their communities, contributing to the ongoing development of skills for future generations.
Ultimately, the main goals of this scheme are to invest in UK talent and skills, which in turn will help enhance the quality of regional, national, and international research.
- 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.
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