Call for participants - National Museum Lagos Academic Research Grant

The National Museum of Lagos and IFRA-Nigeria are offering academic research grants for researchers to work on the documents and artifacts of the Museum, focusing on questionning the notions of "heritages" and "alternative heritages". 

Each of the selected researchers will have to participate to a colloquium that will be organized in May 2026 in Lagos on the theme “Re-Imagining Nigeria Heritage” and will have subsequently to submit awritten article for IFRA-Nigeria working papers .

This grant is part of our Nigerian Alternative Heritages project, made possible by the French Embassy Fund. 

Deadline for applications: 7 December 2025

Read the full call below or download it here.

This call is part of the activities designed to implement the "Nigeria Alternative Heritage" FEF project,mainly financed by the French government, through the collaboration between National Museum Lagosand French Research Institute in Nigeria (IFRA-Nigeria). In our effort toward taking our engagement onthe notion of “alternative heritage” further the National Museum Lagos has come up with a theme for the year two of the project “Re-Imagining Nigeria Heritage”.

On this sub-theme we are putting forward an academic research call for interested researchers. The selected researchers will work on the documentary and artifacts holdings of the National Museum Lagosfocusing on the concept of “Alternative” and the notion of “heritage”. The concept of “Alternative Heritage” not as one already cast in stone but to question and engage it on all its features.

We welcome proposal that speaks and discusses the issues of dialogue about Nigerian Heritage that canbe categorised as “alternative” beaming light on it and interrogating the categorization as it relate to allaspect and nature of what is considered Nigeria Heritage.

The National Museum Lagos holds in her Archive repositories collections of maps, ethnography picturesof artefacts, intelligence and assessment reports of Nigeria districts and provinces, archaeological fieldnotes, in addition to several thousand of objects and artefacts from different provinces and regions inNigeria stored within the Museum stores. A substantial part of these archives and artefacts are beingdigitized through the FEF Alternative Heritage project and are available online for public access.https://lagosmuseumarchives.ng/

This research grant is integrated into the FEF project to facilitate and support research projects thatsignificantly benefit from substantial onsite and online use of the National Museum Archives’ uniquecollections in the archive and store in relation to the theme of the project. Each of the selected researchers will have to participate to a colloquium that will be organized in May, 2026 in Lagos on the theme “Re-Imagining Nigeria Heritage” and will have subsequently to submit awritten article for IFRA-Nigeria working papers.

Funding

• Grants of 1000 Euros (equivalent in Nairas) each will be awarded to successful candidate tocover all expenses that will be incur and pay for the time spent conducting research at theNational Museum Archive and Stores and writing out the article.

Eligibility

• Open to academic and independent researchers. We encourage application by those working inacademic practice as well as those whose research is interdisciplinary, Anthropology, Archaeology, History, Geography and Digital Humanities.
• Applicants must hold a minimum of Master’s Degree
• Researchers that are based in Nigeria are of priority. Women and Early Career researchers arehighly encouraged to apply.
• This call is for four (4) grants that may be awarded to an individual applicant or a team. For a team, the role of each member should be explained and justified.

How to apply

To apply, please submit the following:

A project proposal (1,200 words max) that:

1. Describes the proposed research, its originality and methodology.
2. A curriculum vitae highlighting experiences in relation to the project.
3. A detailed budget with an itemized list of projected expenses for transportation, accommodations, meals and personal stipend. Applicants should indicate any other sources offunding that will be applied to the project, if applicable.
4. Applicants should submit one (1) letter of recommendation from someone qualified to judge thequality, feasibility, and significance of the proposal and the qualifications of the applicant tocomplete the project to be sent in support of their proposed project. Those writingrecommendations should submitted with their application containing an active contact detail oftheir referees who should not be a relative or too close relations.
5. All application submission should be titled LAGOS MUSEUM FEF RESEARCH GRANT_NAME OFTHE APPLICANT

All application should be in one single file document and should be submitted to the following email onbefore 11:59 PM of the 7th of December, 2025. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tags: heritage