Call for proposals: Fellowship History of Utrecht University

26 March 2026

The University Library and the University Museum Utrecht hold many items related to the rich and diverse history of Utrecht University.

Following a successful first round in 2025, Utrecht University is now offering, for the second time, an (external) fellowship and an (internal) seed grant for initiatives in the field of history of UU in order to promote the study of its academic heritage collections.

In the run-up to the next centenary, UU's 400th anniversary in 2036, Utrecht University Library and the University Museum Utrecht want to highlight and further explore these collections in the coming years in order to deepen and enrich the picture of our university history by including new perspectives and underexposed sources. Special attention will be paid to the role of the university in society, both in the city and region of Utrecht and in the wider world.

The fellowship is an initiative of the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Utrecht University Library, University Museum Utrecht and the Working Group Utrecht University History.

Highlighting and exploring the collections

Utrecht University has a rich and diverse history. The Special Collections of Utrecht University Library contain over a million items. Among them are several dozen professorial archives, as well as written and printed documents on the founding of the university in 1636, on centenary celebrations (1736, 1836, 1936) and other anniversaries, lecture notes, lists of lectures given, publications by professors. There are also sources on student life in the 19th century, the university during World War II, and its role in colonialism. The 20th-century archive of the University Library itself is also kept in the library.

Utrecht University also holds a heritage collection of approximately 180,000 objects that collectively illustrate the development of knowledge, research and education in Utrecht. This collection is managed by the University Museum Utrecht (UMU). It comprises instruments, microscopes, measuring and drawing equipment, educational and demonstration models, specimens, glass slides and other historical visual material, archaeological finds, portraits and works of art.