The solar system

£1,600 per month

The National Maritime Museum has the largest collection of maritime related objects in the world and is particularly strong its holdings in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The collections comprise over 2,500,000 objects, 98% of which are manuscripts, and include a dedicated maritime library, personal, official and business papers, oil paintings, prints and drawings, charts, scientific and navigational instruments, decorative arts, textiles, ship models, photographs and film and ship plans. Further information on our collections can be found online. You can search the library and manuscript catalogue and see approximately 10,000 objects in our Collections Online website.

Each year the National Maritime Museum offers a number of Caird Short-term Research Fellowships for advanced research into its collections. The awards are specifically intended to support scholars and museum professionals who live abroad or at a distance from London for periods of up to three months.

The Museum’s fellowship programme has the overall aim of supporting innovative scholarly research that promotes a better understanding of Britain’s maritime past. The Museum is not constrained by disciplinary boundaries and welcomes proposals that apply a range of academic perspectives to both the collections and our subject areas.

Recent Caird Short-term Research Fellowships have been awarded for research on the Michael Graham-Stewart collection of slavery and abolition material; desertion in American waters in the 18th Century; on the history of the Greenwich Hospital Collection; on 18th-century cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific; on 17th-century Dutch art; on the history of navigation and scientific instruments; on Elizabethan and Stuart travel writing; on women’s employment at sea; on the 20th-century development of naval history; and on an edition of Robert Fitzroy’s Voyage of HMS Beagle.

The Museum welcomes all proposals that will continue to take forward scholarly knowledge. We are particularly keen to receive proposals that will add to the work of the Museum's three research centres: the Centre for Imperial and Maritime Studies, the Centre for Art and Travel and the Centre for the History of the Maritime Sciences and Technologies.

The conditions for a Caird Short-term Research Fellowship are:

• The award for a Fellowship is £1600 per month to cover travel, accommodation and subsistence for a predetermined two- or three-month period. In exceptional cases this may be extended for a further month. Tax law requires the production of receipts to cover expenditure. Further information will be given on acceptance of the proposal.
• The Museum will receive printed acknowledgement in any and all publications resulting in whole or in part from research carried out during the period of the Fellowship.
• A Fellow will provide the Museum (through the Research Department) with copies of all publications supported in whole or in part by the Fellowship.
• Fellows will provide the Museum with a written report on the completion of their Fellowship.
• During the tenure of the Fellowship, a Fellow may be asked to attend conferences or symposia on behalf of the Museum or to participate in informal seminars with staff.

Fellowships are tenable by arrangement and within the academic year following appointment.

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How to apply

Download the application form (PDF file). Please complete the form and return it, along with your C.V. and detailed proposal, to the address below.

PDF files can be downloaded and viewed using Acrobat Reader.

Return your application to:

Research Administrator
National Maritime Museum
Greenwich
London SE10 9NF

For more information, contact the Research Administrator:

Tel: +44 (0)20 8312 6716
Fax: +44 (0)20 8312 6592
E-mail: research@nmm.ac.uk

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Notes for applicants

The application form asks for brief personal details, the title of the proposed research projects and the names and addresses of two academic referees. In addition, applicants are asked to supply the following information, preferably typed or word-processed, and in a form suitable for photocopying:

• A curriculum vitae; this should be kept short and include details of the applicant’s education, employment history and major publications.
• An outline of the proposed research project, which should not exceed three sides of A4, a timetable for its completion and proposals for the dissemination of research. The Museum does not undertake to publish or assist with the publication of the results of research carried out during the tenure of the Fellowship. As no interviews are held for Short-term Caird Fellowships, applicants should ensure that all relevant information is included.
• For the same reason, applicants should send a copy of their application to their nominated referees at the time of or in advance of its submission, asking the referees to comment on their professional knowledge of the applicants and the contribution the project would make to scholarship. They should ask referees to send reference letters directly to the Museum by 1st November.

The deadline for 2009 applications has now passed. The next round of Fellowship applications will take place in Autumn 2010.

Contact:

Research Administrator
National Maritime Museum
Greenwich
LONDON SE10 9NF

Awards for Caird Short-term Fellowships will be decided on from the proposals alone. Applicants will be informed of the decision of the Academic Awards Committee by the following January.

For any further information, please contact the Research Administrator.