Collaborative Doctoral Research

Doctoral research is an important part of our collections and subject research. We have a strong track record in developing and co-supervising collaborative doctoral projects. We work with a wide range of UK universities.

Collaborative doctoral students are an important part of our research community at RMG, participating in seminars and conferences, writing blogs, enhancing the catalogue and  contributing to public engagement events.

Collaborative doctoral studentship awards promote high-quality research and skills within the arts and humanities sector, provide students with experience of working in the cultural sector outside an academic environment and enable us to increase interdisciplinary research on our collections in partnership with HEIs.

Propose a collaborative doctoral project with us

• Only university academics (not students) can apply to propose a project with us
• Each summer we issue a Call for Expressions of Interests (EoIs)
• Each autumn we invite full applications, based on the EoIs which are of interest to us
• The deadline for applications is usually in late November
• An external panel assesses the applications in January
• We recruit students in the Spring
• We currently develop collaborative doctoral proposals through our participation in the REACH CDP Consortium

Our previous collaborative doctoral projects

• The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds our doctoral projects. They have awarded us 37 collaborative doctoral studentships over the past 18 years.
• So far, 31 of our 37 collaborative doctoral students have completed their doctorates.
• Our doctoral alumni have gone on to careers in the museum world, academia, the arts and media.
• From 2013-19 we were part of the 'Thames Consortium’, which held an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (‘CDP’). Our consortium partners were the National Portrait Gallery and The National Archives.
• Since 2020 we have been part of the 'REACH Consortium'. For all new collaborative doctoral enquiries please see here. 

Collaborative Doctoral Award Students and their projects

Emma Hill

• co-supervised with University of Kent
• The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and its networks of support and influence, 1675–1742

Ellis Huddart

• Co-supervised with Birkbeck, University of London
• Floating palaces: royal yachts, maritime tours and constructions of monarchy, empire and decolonization, 1875-1997

Greine Jordan

• Co-supervised with University of East Anglia
• Voyagers All? The historic role of missionary societies in shaping children's understandings of Britain's place in the world

Maya Wassell Smith

• co-supervised with University of Cardiff
• Sailor Art: Maritime Making in the Long Nineteenth Century

Ben Weddell

• Co-supervised with University of Reading
• Nationality and Shared Identities in Maritime Communities, 1707-1797

Sarah Weston

• Co-supervised with Royal Holloway, University of London
• Home from Home? Constructions of Identity and the Warship Interior 1880-1939