BGP Doctoral 2010 Grant (University College London)

This grant funds doctoral training partnerships, not a specific research project — it supports the next generation of researchers across the arts and humanities. The problem it addresses is straightforward: advanced research requires skilled people, and those people need structured training, supervision, and financial support. Without dedicated funding streams, promising graduates cannot afford to pursue a PhD, and the UK loses potential expertise in fields that shape culture, heritage, policy, and public debate. If this training succeeds, the impact is indirect but long-lasting. The doctoral students supported by this grant will go on to work in universities, museums, archives, creative industries, and public bodies. Their research may influence how we understand history, how we preserve cultural artefacts, how we design public spaces, or how we interpret literature and art. The grant does not aim to produce a single breakthrough — it aims to sustain the pipeline of people who make those breakthroughs possible. This is primarily a capacity-building investment in fundamental scholarship. Much like earlier investments in humanities doctoral training, its full value will become clear only years later, when trained researchers apply their skills to problems no one could have predicted at the time of funding.