The pilot round of the AHRC Early Career Researcher (ECR) Fellowships has provided compelling evidence of how powerful collective development can be within cultural and heritage organisations. Rather than being an optional extra, the cohort model delivered by the V&A coordination team emerged as a core part of what made the pilot ECR fellowship programme successful.
The Background
The pilot fellowship programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research council (AHRC) supported 8 Early Career Researchers across 7 Independent Research Organisations, with the V&A acting as the Cohort Coordination and Development team for the scheme. We designed a training and development programme focused on the real challenges early career researchers face in cultural and heritage settings aiming to give fellows the tools, confidence and networks to navigate these environments and to build a career pathway through and beyond their fellowship.
Conducted by Santra Consulting, the pilot evaluation shows that the cohort model, intentionally designed and convened by the V&A coordination team, delivered meaningful benefits for fellows, host institutions, and the wider GLAM and Heritage sector. The evaluation report also indicates that the aims of the training and development programme were met, and further strengthened, through the cohort model.
From the outset, the V&A Coordination team built the programme around the idea of collective support. We designed the fortnightly online coffee mornings and twice yearly in‑person fellowship events as opportunities to help the fellows, geographically spread across the UK, to build rapport, share experiences and develop a sense of belonging.
The in‑person events enabled fellows to visit each other’s research organisations, giving them a deeper understanding of their peers’ work while engaging collectively with key sector research issues. They also created space for social moments, helping to build relationships that extended beyond the fellowship and individual projects.
The programmed coffee mornings were a cornerstone of the fellowship experience. Guided by the fellowship programme coordinator, the coffee mornings offered a regular, informal space for the fellows to talk through project developments, challenges and wellbeing, and to learn from one another’s expertise and the V&A coordination team’s insight. This peer focused knowledge exchange enriched the programme, extending its impact beyond the formal training sessions.
One fellow put it simply:
“I didn’t necessarily find my ‘gang’ in the institution, but I found my peers in the cohort.”
That collective support helped the fellows to navigate the pressures of early career research.
Fellows brought new expertise into their host institutions, particularly in socially engaged, humanities based and interdisciplinary research. Many IRO hosts noted that fellows helped them reassess collections, especially around colonial histories and marginalised communities and agreed that the fellowship enabled research that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.
The impacts are clear:
- 95 public engagement events (6,200+ attendees)
- 4 exhibitions (88,000 visitors)
- 12 digital outputs (126,000+ views)
- 2,900+ database updates
- 19 published papers, with 15 more in preparation
- 40+ new collaborations
- 3 sector toolkits and 10 training resources
As one Steering Committee member reflected:
“We observed a sea change: fellows went in wondering how they could possibly gain traction within these organisations; by November, they had emerged as confident, robust researchers who really led the room.”
The evaluation also outlined challenges the fellows experienced during the programme including, workload intensity, onboarding inconsistencies, and post‑fellowship career uncertainty. These issues further highlighted the importance of the cohort model and the regular fellowship touchpoints, which gave fellows a stable community to share strategies and support one another.
We are continuing to work closely with fellows, and fellowship alumni, to refine the second round of the programme, focusing on targeted adaptations to:
- Streamline programme intensity
- Strengthen mentorship structures
- Improve onboarding guidance for hosts and increase host‑to‑host connection
- Enhance wellbeing support
- Expand sector partnerships
These changes reflect our commitment to responsive, evidence-based programme coordination.
In the evaluation report stakeholders described the V&A’s approach to the fellowship programme as “innovative,” combining cohort support, mentoring, training and cross sector collaboration. Building on this, we’re excited to announce a new partnership with the School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London, for the second round of the fellowship programme.
SAS plays a unique role in advancing the humanities in the UK, and this collaboration will place the fellowship within one of the country’s leading and most expansive humanities research networks, opening even more interdisciplinary connections and opportunities for our growing cohort of early career research fellows.
The pilot ECR fellowship programme evaluation has shown that when researchers grow together, the sector grows with them, that the intentionally designed and supported cohort model isn’t an add on, it is a core and defining component of the ECR Fellowship.
