Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellowship Scheme
2026 Medical Humanities in Practice Research Fellowship Scheme
Our Medical Humanities Practice Research Fellowship scheme aims to support professionals and researchers from health or voluntary and community sectors to develop research within the medical humanities.
The year-long, funded Fellowship will enable you to develop or deliver a research project through a medical humanities lens on a critical issue encountered in your practice. This might include engagement activities to explore a topic or develop a research idea with potential collaborators from the medical humanities, community groups and/or health and VCSE sectors, such as exploratory workshops or focus group.
Applications are particularly encouraged for research projects which set out to explore health challenges arising at the intersection of mental health and health inequalities, and aim to develop new insights or approaches to tackling these health challenges, particularly in connection to underrepresented groups, race and health, neurodiversity or lived experience research.
The Fellowships will run from June 2026 to June 2027. During the 1 year Fellowship, you will:
- Receive a grant of up to £12,000 to support your research plan
- Become a member of the Discovery Research Platform, with access to an exciting range of events, activities and networks
- Enjoy one-on-one support to help you develop your research ideas
- Attend six cohort workshops throughout the year (two in-person, four online) where you’ll learn from medical humanities examples, share learning, build links and showcase your work
Applications from, or focused on, underrepresented or less heard from groups within health research are strongly encouraged. The scheme is open to UK residents only.
Deadline for applications: 30 January 2026, 12:00 PM (noon).
Application Guidance
- For detailed information about the scheme, including eligibility criteria and how to apply, please download our Application Guidance and the Application Form. If you require the information in an alternative format, please email imh.practicefellows@durham.ac.uk
- Two webinars with information about the scheme took place in December 2025 and in January 2026. You can watch these below.
Find out more
- Watch the webinar and Q & A about the Medical Humanities Practice Research Fellowship that took place on 16 December 2025.
- Watch the webinar about the Medical Humanities Practice Research Fellowships that took place on 9 January 2026 on Developing Your Idea.
- For any inquiries regarding the Medical Humanities Practice Research Fellowship scheme and application process, please email imh.practicefellows@durham.ac.uk
Testimonials from the 2025-26 cohort
The fellowship is a great opportunity to develop yourself and a project that can create links across organisations and impact. Having dedicated time and support really enables me to bridge Medical Humanities with NHS research practice, finding ways for marginalised voices to shape how we address health research inequalities.
The fellowship has been an incredible opportunity for me to learn and grow as a community researcher in ways that other research projects haven’t allowed. From this fellowship and especially from the online cohort event, I learned more about research ethics, which not only helped me with planning my fellowship project but also future research projects I can lead on.