Tate hosts a growing number of doctoral students engaged in research at Tate. Students work at Tate in a variety of ways, gaining professional experience and contributing their ideas and knowledge to Tate’s programmes and projects.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Tate Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme offers fully funded studentships for study towards a Doctoral degree. Successful candidates are jointly supervised by subject specialists at both their Higher Education Institute (HEI) and at one of the 25 museums, libraries, archives or heritage organisations that make up the CDP Consortium.

Tate has up to three AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentships to allocate over 2024/25. We are currently inviting university academics (if relevant, in collaboration with named doctoral candidates) to co-develop a collaborative doctoral research project with Tate colleagues in response to the themes below.

Please note that applications to Tate’s AHRC CDP awards are now closed. If you are interested in collaborating with us on a doctoral project, please complete our Expression of Interest form.

Current Opportunities

PhD Opportunity with Tate and the Courtauld: Imperial Intimacies: Portraiture and the East India Company, c.1757–1857

The Courtauld and Tate are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from 1 October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.

This studentship will explore portraiture produced in connection with the East India Company between 1757 and 1857, to uncover new stories about the individuals impacted by, or involved in, British imperialism in South Asia, and to rethink the role of portraiture within ‘British’ art histories.

The start date is 1 October 2025, and the deadline for applications is Sunday, 6 April 2025. For more details on how to apply, click here.

PhD Opportunity with Tate and the University of Manchester: Art from the North 1979–90

Manchester University and Tate are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from 1 October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.

This studentship will critically examine artistic practices and cultural activism in Northern England during the 1980s. The 1980s represented a pivotal era in the UK, characterised by profound political and economic transformations. Despite these challenges, the arts in Northern England flourished in diverse ways, opposing the political context through practices rooted in feminism, post-colonialism, class struggle and socialism.

The start date is 1 October 2025, and the deadline for applications is Friday, 2 May 2025. For more details about the studentship and how to apply, click here.

Tate Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Current studentships

Past Studentships

See a list of projects by past collaborative doctoral students at Tate, ordered chronologically by year of commencement.

Further information about Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentships is available on the Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships website.

To discuss possible research collaborations or projects with Tate, please email studentships@tate.org.uk.

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