Chevening Southeast Europe British Library Fellowship
The Chevening Southeast Europe British Library Fellowship is co-funded by the British Library and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
It is open to applications from mid-career professionals from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey, who have a strong interest in the history and culture of the Balkan region.
The fellowship will take place at the British Library, where you will work closely with the Lead Curator for Southeast European Collections and colleagues in cataloguing, digital research, and collection metadata.
You will use your professional expertise, subject knowledge, and language skills to improve collection records, analyse data, and produce a series of written content and research to help make the region’s intellectual heritage more visible and accessible to a global audience.
The duration of this fellowship is 12 months.
Start: January 2027
End: December 2027/January 2028
Eligibility
In addition to meeting our standard eligibility criteria, you must:
– Be a citizen of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey and be a resident in one of these countries at the point of application
-Have advanced proficiency in at least two languages of Southeast Europe, including Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian, and Slovenian
-Have a postgraduate level qualification (or equivalent professional training or experience in a relevant area) at the time of application
– Have significant professional and/or academic research experience (at least five years)
– Be currently employed or a currently enrolled PhD candidate (PhD must not be with a UK/EU or USA university)
– Experience working with large datasets and/or computational methods in the library and information context
– Experience working with 18th-20th century printed books
– Strong interest in the history and culture of the Balkan region
– Excellent humanities research skills working in a collections/records environment
– Familiarity with library metadata standards is desirable, specifically experience with MARC21, RDA, and the use of LCSH within an integrated library system
Benefits
12-month period of project-based activity at the British Library
Living expenses for the duration of the fellowship
Return economy airfare
Allowance package for fellowship-related activities
Up to £1,000 for approved project-related expenses
deadline: 15 May 2026
more info: https://www.chevening.org/fellowship/chevening-southeast-europe-british-library-fellowship/
