The V&A is delighted to have been awarded funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for four cohort years of Collaborative PhD research funding.
The V&A has been awarded 14 studentships in total over four cohort years (five for 2027 start, three in 2028, three in 2029 and three in 2030). The first intake of PhD researchers funded through this scheme will start in October 2027.
Unlike other funding schemes for PhD studentships in the UK, the V&A makes the decision on which projects to support. This decision is based upon the strategic relevance of the project proposal.
The funding provides a PhD researcher with an annual stipend for four years full time (or up to eight-years if part-time); pays university tuition fees for undertaking the PhD programme at the partner HEI; and provides additional support through a Researcher Training Support Grant. The V&A provides £1250 per studentship for research expenses.
The funding is to enable the PhD researcher to produce a work of original research that is of strategic benefit to the V&A. The project is designed by a V&A member of staff in collaboration with an academic based at a UK University, who will act as primary project supervisors. We also require secondary supervisors from the V&A and the partner university to ensure consistency of supervision across the duration of the project.
The award is funded through the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Awards scheme. The awards are designed to support the next generation of arts and humanities researchers through partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and non-HEI organisations such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The training partnerships aim to identify and address short and long-term skills challenges and foster interdisciplinarity between the cultural, creative and heritage sectors, academia and other employers.
Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Awards were previously known as Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships, and were renamed as part of AHRC’s new Doctoral Training Investment Framework.
How do I get involved?
We are now seeking project proposals from potential V&A and university-based supervisors for collaborative PhD projects to start in October 2027.
The application process is two-stage:
- An Expression of Interest, developed with a co-supervisor based at a UK university, to be submitted by 9 October 2026.
- Successful EOIs will be informed by 16 October 2026 and will be invited to submit full applications by 14 December 2026.
The Selection Panel meets on 12 January 2027 and will select five projects to start on 1 October 2027.
Expressions of Interest must be jointly submitted by a V&A staff member and an academic based at a UK university.
Please note that you only need to complete the Full Project Proposal Form if your Expression of Interest is successful.
Academics interested in submitting a proposal, but who do not yet have a potential co-supervisor at the V&A, are required to contact Dr OIiver Cox, Head of Academic Partnerships on email: o.cox@vam.ac.uk by 14 September 2026.
Expressions of Interest must respond to the V&A’s Priority Research Areas.
Priority Research Areas
1. Ecologies of design and production:
- What enables creative individuals and institutions to thrive?
- What drives and sustains the desire to make?
- What impact does human creativity have on society and the economy?
2. Identity and agency in the lives of our objects:
- Highlighting understudied, marginalised objects and makers in our collections
- Emphasising the political contexts of creativity and of the assignment of cultural value
- Questioning historical and contemporary conceptions of ownership and placing them in productive tension with issues of identity
3. Nurturing the sustainable future of creativity:
- Impact of new and emerging technologies on future of creative practice
- At a moment of economic and social uncertainty, how can the V&A nurture Britain’s creative strengths?
- Sustainability of the heritage built environment and processes in a changing climate
Responses to these research priorities can be rooted in any area of the V&A’s expansive collections at any V&A site. Projects can vary across chronologies and geographies.
What have previous projects explored?
Over the past three years, nine Collaborative PhD projects have selected by the V&A:
2024 Cohort:
- Visualising Networks: Rediscovering the Acquisition History of the V&A Asia Collection, 1852 – 2023. (Asia Department)
- The Extractive Museum: The Formation, evolution and dispersal of the Museum of Practical Geology Collections, 1835 – c.1901. (Decorative Arts and Sculpture Department)
- Second life: understanding deterioration of recycled plastics in Museum collections. (Conservation Department)
2025 Cohort:
- Plants and their Products: Biocultural collections at Kew Gardens and the South Kensington Museum during the long nineteenth century. (VARINALA)
- V&A East Storehouse: exploring the impact of dynamic approaches to stored collections on museum identity, user engagement and collections management. (V&A East)
- Social Inequality and British Documentary Style: Bert Hardy’s photographs for Picture Post magazine, 1940 – 1957. (AAPD)
2026 Cohort:
- Invisible Hands: Migrant Labour and British Craft in the Long Eighteenth Century. (PFTF)
- Paduan Renaissance Bronzes at the V&A. (DAS)
- Warps and Wefts: Textiles, Design and Scotland in Historical and Contemporary Contexts. (V&A Dundee)
Who do I talk to if I want more guidance?
We will hold application surgeries for V&A colleagues interested in submitting a project proposal to the scheme on. These surgeries are not mandatory but provide additional support to colleagues who may be new to the scheme.
Surgeries are available in 30-minute time slots on:
- 25 August 2026: 13:00 – 14:00
- 10 September 2026: 11:30 – 13:00
To book an application surgery, please email o.cox@vam.ac.uk with your preferred time slot in the email subject line.
Please contact Dr Oliver Cox with any other queries or questions.
