Collaborative PhDs

Doctoral Training Partnerships

The National Archives is pleased to be a member of several Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs). These are consortia of research organisations offering innovative doctoral training, funded by block grants.

The National Archives is a formal partner in three DTPs:

• London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) 
• Techne
• White Rose Consortium for the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH)

We contribute to these partnerships through providing training and studentships, and by supporting student placements.

Our current students

Meet our current doctoral students and find out more about their research.

Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships - expressions of interest

The National Archives is the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. It is also an Independent Research Organisation (IRO) and fulfils a leadership role for the wider archive sector.

Working with PhD students is an integral part of The National Archives' Research Vision and thought leadership. PhD studentships allow us to increase capacity for focused and innovative research in areas of strategic importance.

What are Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships?

Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDPs) are PhD studentships jointly supervised by heritage organisations and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The National Archives has four CDP studentships available which will be starting in the academic year 2026-27.

The aims of The National Archives’ CDPs are to:

• Pursue unique and interdisciplinary research to further our Research Vision.
• Unlock our iconic archival collection for the benefit of existing and new audiences.
• Innovate our practice in ways that will deliver practical benefit to us and to the wider archive sector.
• Equip students with the skills and knowledge needed for future careers in the cultural heritage sector.
• Make a distinctive contribution to the broader field of arts and humanities research

Call to academics

We are putting out a call to academics who would like to co-supervise a CDP PhD in partnership with The National Archives.

Applications should address one or more of the twenty priorities found on page 13 of our Research Vision. For 2026 entry, we are particularly interested in:

• Digital and physical preservation: the long-term preservation of born-digital records, and collection permanence vs sustainable practice in conservation.
• Parchment characterisation and cleaning (e.g. laser cleaning, multiphoton microscopy).
• Histories of preservation and/or environmental or ecological histories in the archive.
• Indigenous histories through state archives, histories of enslavement and/or tracing international trade through historical and material study of our collection.
• Automated and/or AI-driven data enrichment, cataloguing and linking.
• Enhancing access to our collection through OCR/HTR, open standards (e.g. IIIF) and emerging technologies such as 3D imaging or generative AI.
• The National Archives’ photographic collections, the history of photography in the UK and overseas, and the materiality of early photographic processes.
• The history of intellectual property, advertising, public information and/or of the creative industries.

This is a competitive two-stage process across several months, beginning with an invitation for academics to submit expressions of interest detailing their proposed research topic and how this fits with our Research Vision.

Our Research Vision

Research underpins everything that we do at The National Archives. Our Research Vision sets out our plan of action for 2024 – 2027.

Guidance notes

Our guidance provides detail on the following:

• Background on the CDP scheme
• Applicant eligibility
• Our areas of research interest
• Application timeline
• Assessment criteria
• Our expectations regarding diversity, equity and inclusion

Initial enquiries

After consulting our guidance notes, all academics interested in co-supervising a CDP PhD should inform our Research Impact, Culture and Engagement team in the first instance. Please contact us with a short summary of your PhD idea, clearly explaining how this meets one of our research priorities as set out in our Research Vision. If you already know a member of staff at The National Archives that you would like to co-supervise with, please include them in your email. If you do not have an existing contact at The National Archives, our team can potentially match you up with an appropriate co-supervisor.

Once we receive your initial enquiry, we will let you know if we can support your expression of interest.

Initial enquiries deadline

Expression of interest

If you receive a positive response to your initial enquiry, please email us and ask for an expression of interest form and complete this in collaboration with your proposed first co-supervisor at The National Archives.

Expression of interest deadline

Please submit your expression of interest to research@nationalarchives.gov.uk by 17:00 on 15 October 2025.

Find out more

Current PhD Opportunities