Castles and Coprolites

It's fair to say that in order to be competitive for most permanent academic posts in the UK (and elsewhere), you're likely to need to complete a postdoc after you finish your PhD. But postdocs aren’t just a stepping stone, they’re a chance to define your research identity, build collaborations, and (let’s be honest) keep the lights on while you publish your thesis work. The best fellowships give you time, resources, and freedom to explore big ideas and really grow into independence. I have written recently about the differences between PDRA posts and Fellowships , which you may find helpful if you are not familiar with the difference between these. This post is looking specifically at Fellowship opportunities.  Back in 2018, I wrote a post about postdoctoral funding for archaeologists, which became one of the most read items in the entire blog. The advice in that post still stands, but a lot has changed since then, new schemes have emerged, old ones have evolved, and the ho...

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on an editorial marking the forthcoming 40th anniversary of Geoarchaeology , which has been a great to chance to spend some time reading through the journal archive. I've been spending time revisiting classic papers that helped shape the field, while also discovering newer papers that slipped past my attention when they were first published (and of course, the first 14 years of the journal were published before I even started my academic career - the journal is only 4 years younger than I am!). One of the joys of working through the archive is being reminded of the remarkable breadth of geoarchaeology. The journal's pages chart the development of approaches ranging from micromorphology and sedimentology to landscape archaeology, provenance studies, heritage science, geochemistry and isotopic analysis. Many of the questions that remain central to the discipline today including site formation processes, environmental change, human-la...

This week, reports emerged that the Department for Education (DfE) intends to remove teaching grant support for creative and performing arts courses in English universities as part of a wider reprioritisation of the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) . The rationale is that scarce public funding should be concentrated on subjects considered most critical to national skills needs, particularly healthcare and high-cost STEM provision (though, grants for nursing are also being cut). At first glance, this may seem like the familiar debate about the relative value of arts and sciences. In reality, it raises a much bigger question, that is how coherent is government policy across higher education, skills, research, innovation and economic growth? Just over a year ago, the UK Government's Modern Industrial Strategy identified the Creative Industries as one of eight priority growth sectors . The accompanying Creative Industries Sector Plan described a sector contributing £124 billion in GV...