Overview

The 1851 Research Fellowship in the Built Environment is intended to enable those at a more advanced stage in their career to explore important current issues, selected by the Commission.

Applications are welcomed from post-graduates, researchers, practitioners or professionals on a career break.

The Fellowship runs for two years and is funded at £50,000 pa.

Applications are open

2026 Research Brief

Biome-positive urbanism: Designing the caring city
(Please view the full research brief by clicking on the link below)

Funding: £50,000 per year for 2 years
Closing Date: 15 September 2026
Interviews: 17 or 24 November
Fellowship Start: By 31 December 2026

Introduced in 1995, awards have been made for research into:

  • Collaborative Leadership in the Built Environment: Building Capability in the Next Generation. Two awards made to Maddie Kessler and Eleanor Fawcett 2022
  • How can AI assist in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals? awarded to Xiang Xie 2023
  • Restoring Nature in the City awarded to Tijana Blanusa 2021
  • What is the High Street for? What Might the “Future High Street” be like? awarded to David Rudling 2019
  • Manufacturing an Inhabitable City awarded to Irena Bauman 2017
  • Cycling and the Built Environment awarded to Ellen Hadden 2015
  • Genetics and the Built Environment awarded to Kelvin Campbell 2013
  • Towns and cities in Shock awarded to Anna Minton 2011
  • Urban design: Ideas for part of the Commission’s Estate awarded to Deborah Saunt 2009
  • Climate Change – The future for Building Design awarded to Victorian Cronin 2007
  • Housing for the 21st Century awarded to Dominic Papa 2003
  • Transport and the Built Environment awarded to Lynn Sloman 2001
  • Urban Issues, Human Habitation
  • Landscape and Modernity

Built Environment Fellows