Placement Opportunities Available

Below you can find all the recent placement opportunities currently available to LAHP students.

To apply, please follow the application guidelines noted in each opportunity.

If you apply directly to a placement host and are successful, please notify lahp@ucl.ac.uk

• Traces of Resilience at West Horsley Place

  Project: Traces of Resilience

  Organisation: West Horsley Place

  Website: Home | West Horsley Place

   

  Duration: 3 months full time or an extended duration part time

  Timing: Timeline to be agreed in consultation with the project team.

  Location: Hybrid (remote working with occasional on-site/archive research, subject to access requirements).

  To Apply: To apply please send a CV and a 500-word statement outlining relevant skills and research interests to jo.ellison@westhorsleyplace.org. by the closing date of Friday 30 October 2026.

   

  Project Description:

  An exciting opportunity has arisen for an AHRC-funded doctoral researcher to undertake a placement exploring historical representation and disability history at West Horsley Place, a Grade I listed medieval manor house and small, dynamic heritage site.

  As the placement holder, you will contribute to Traces of Resilience, a live heritage research and engagement project led by the West Horsley Place Access Panel. The project seeks to identify, contextualise, and critically interpret the lives of disabled individuals connected to West Horsley Place and its surrounding locality. It responds to long-standing gaps in historical representation and aims to embed disability history within the public interpretation of the site through a co-produced exhibition and associated creative engagement.

  The project is underpinned by current scholarship in disability history and critical heritage studies, particularly approaches that interrogate archival absence, historic terminology, and the ethics of representation.

   

  Placement holder:

  Responding to a research brief, you will conduct targeted archival and contextual research to inform the intellectual framework of the project and provide a rigorous evidential basis for subsequent community co-production.

  This placement is intended to support high-quality, critical research rather than exhaustive archival completion, and explicitly recognises the interpretive significance of silences and absences within the historical record. You will gain the opportunity to see how research informs heritage practice in real time.

   

  What you will do:

  • Undertake desk-based and archival research relating to disabled individuals connected to West Horsley Place and its locality
  • Analyse historic sources with attention to changing language, attitudes, and frameworks of disability
  • Identify key case studies, themes, and interpretive questions emerging from the research
  • Critically document gaps, silences, and ambiguities within the archive where relevant
  • Produce a written research report and annotated bibliography suitable for use by heritage professionals and community partners
  • Contribute to the early interpretive framing of a public exhibition and engagement programme
  • Engage in regular project meetings (online and in person) with the project team to ensure research findings fulfil the needs of the on-site team.
  • Participate in and share findings through an end-of-project workshop with academics and sector professionals.
  • Participate in a knowledge exchange workshop with Access panel members and representatives from disability charities with the purpose of translating academic findings into accessible, community related themes.

   

  What you will gain:

  • Bespoke experience of conducting research to meet heritage sector need.
  • First-hand understanding of how academic research informs heritage interpretation and practice.
  • An opportunity to grow your networks across the academic and heritage sectors.
  • A direct role in shaping interpretation, programming and practice at a dynamic and forward-thinking heritage site.
  • On the ground experience of co-producing research-led outputs with input from diverse stakeholders.

   

  Person Specification

  Essential

  • Have experience of conducting research to a high standard.
  • Strong communication skills and experience
  • An understanding of the use of research in historical sites for diverse audiences.

  Desirable

  • Research interest or publications relating to disability history
  • Experience working with heritage organisations, museums, or public history projects
  • Lived experience of disability
  • Have an interest in working with or in the heritage sector.

  We particularly welcome applications from disabled academics and researchers from underrepresented backgrounds, in line with the project’s values and aims.

   

  Access and Working Arrangements

  The commissioning body is committed to inclusive research practice and is open to discussing reasonable adjustments, flexible working patterns, and alternative approaches to research and reporting.

   

  Application Process

  Please direct any questions about the role to Jo Ellison, Arts, Heritage and Learning Coordinator at West Horsley Place Trust jo.ellison@westhorsleyplace.org

  To apply please send a CV and a 500-word statement outlining relevant skills and research interests to jo.ellison@westhorsleyplace.org.

   

  Closing date: Friday 30 October 2026

  Interviews: Online interviews will take place during the week commencing 9 November 2026.

   

  Please note that if successful in your application, you will need to complete the LAHP Placement Scheme application and approval process.

   

• UKRI policy internships 2026 – call now open

  The 2026 call for UKRI Policy Internships is now open, with a closing date for applications of 4pm on Tuesday 8th September 2026. Applications must be submitted via the UKRI Funding Service.

  Full details of how to apply, including information on the host partners involved and the specific placement opportunities available, can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder. Please ensure you follow the LAHP application process for students outlined below.

  UKRI Policy Internships 2026 – LAHP application process for students:

  • Step 1: Students contact LAHP to express their interest in applying.
  • Step 2: LAHP provides wording for the supervisor permission statement, and the student arranges for their supervisor to email LAHP directly with their approval.
  • Step 3: LAHP provides a template statement for the student to copy and paste into the ‘Host Organisation Support’ section of the application form. Student selects the role of ‘project lead’ and completes their application.
  • Step 4: Student informs LAHP once they have completed their application and this must be done no later than Monday 31st August 2026. As additional checks are required following submission, we cannot guarantee that applications received after this date will be submitted to UKRI by the UKRI deadline of 8th September 2026.
  • Step 5: LAHP works with UCL Research Services to complete the necessary checks and arrange final submission of the application.

  About the scheme

  The scheme provides an opportunity for UKRI-funded doctoral students to undertake a three-month placement at one of a selected group of highly influential policy organisations, as part of their existing doctoral studentship.

  The aim of the scheme is to embed students in a policymaking environment so that they can develop the skills and experiences needed to make academic research accessible to policy makers. Through these internships, students will produce at least one briefing paper, participate in a policy inquiry, and/or organise a policy event, or equivalent. Interns will gain training and experience related to how research can inform policymaking.

  The Policy Internships scheme is coordinated by UKRI Talent and Skills and ESRC Public and Policy Engagement teams, on behalf of the Research Councils of UKRI. Any queries relating to the application process should be directed to PolicyInternships@ukri.org. Contacts details for specific host partners can be found in the Host Partner Information document.

• Placements at The National Archives

  Call for applications

  Applications for The National Archives’ student placements are currently open, with six projects available within various departments at The National Archives.

  All student placements at The National Archives enable students to:

  1. Gain industry-specific knowledge and skills for working in a variety of roles across the research, government, cultural and heritage sectors.
  2. Build professional connections across the organisation and an understanding of the variety of roles at The National Archives.
  3. Create an output which showcases the work undertaken as part of their placement at The National Archives and which demonstrates the knowledge and skills the student has developed and applied during their time on the placement.

  Placements are offered on a full- or part-time basis. Placements are between one and three months in length, but will all be a maximum of 20 working days (e.g. one month full-time or two-to-three months part-time).

  Eligibility

  Currently, our student placements are only open to master’s and doctoral students with the right to work in the UK, and those who are fully funded and whose funding includes a specific allowance for placements.

  Some of our student placements projects are open to both master’s and doctoral students, whilst others are open to only master’s students or only doctoral students. Please refer to the information provided for specific projects to check your eligibility.

  Find out more about the student placement projects available and application process here

  Application deadlines for each project will be listed on The National Archives webpage.

• Royal College of Physicians – Recording the 20th century library

  The project intends to make the provenance information in an early-20th century accessions register accessible today. It can be completed remotely, and would fall into three parts, which can run concurrently:

  1. Transcribing the handwritten ledger entries in summary. They record the author, title and date of the book, and details of who donated it or where we bought it, and when we acquired it. Most of this data hasn’t previously been included in our main library catalogue.
  2. Matching the entries to books in the library catalogue today, and updating the catalogue entry with the provenance info.
  3. Researching interesting or major donations – who gave the books, what books were given – and writing that up for library website and social media channels.

  Start & end date of placement: Ad hoc placements to be agreed with the student.

  Hours of work: Negotiable, part-time preferred

  Essential criteria: Ability to read or to learn to read early 20th century handwriting.

  Deadline: No specific deadline, placements are available throughout the academic year.

  To apply, please complete the expression of interest and return it to lahp@ucl.ac.uk 

  For further details, please contact Katie Birkwood (Rare books and special collections Librarian) katie.birkwood@rcp.ac.uk