Apply for Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship

The Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship is a partnership between the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Clore Leadership, offering mid-career professionals in the arts and culture sector an exceptional opportunity to undertake an individually tailored leadership programme in the UK. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office funds up to five international fellows to become part of a cohort of approximately 20 fellows, from across the UK and internationally, on the Clore Leadership Fellowship Programme. The programme has been shaping exceptional cultural leaders for the last 16 years.

The Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship brings together some of the most creative and dynamic cultural leaders in the UK and internationally for an intense personal and professional learning experience unlike any other. Clore Leadership Fellowship will support you to be the leader you have the potential to be, through in-depth learning, tailored to your individual needs, aspirations and circumstances.

The fellowship will run from September 2024 – May 2025 with a loose framework designed to boost the development of exceptional cultural leaders at a pivotal point in their career. It is adaptive and self-guided, so you’ll need to be highly motivated and deeply curious.

The Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship is a learnt not a taught programme, it is experiential, grounded in practice, and underpinned by contemporary leadership theories and approaches.

Programme Structure

• As a part of Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship, each international fellow will undertake an individually tailored programme based in the UK. The fellowship starts in September 2025, with fellows travelling from their home country to the UK to undertake the first fellowship residential in September 2025 and then will return to their home country in early October 2025.
• Fellows will then return to the UK in January 2026 to undertake the majority of the fellows’ individual training and development programmes. This will include workshops, individual secondments, mentoring, attendance at courses and conferences, and the second fellowship residential course in May 2026, which completes the programme.
• Programme activities include:
  • September 2025:
    • Residential leadership course where fellows meet each other
  • End of January – May 2026:
    • Three day-long non-residential skills-based workshops
    • A one-day ‘Online Climate Assembly’
    • A 360° leadership profile
    • A secondment in a UK based cultural organisation, (normally in an organisation or field very different to your usual workplace or practice) where you’ll be working on a ‘live’ project set by your host organisation
    • Bespoke learning opportunities through conferences, courses and study visits and peer/sector networking
    • Focused support from a mentor or coach
    • Thought leadership exploration through a written provocation paper
    • Final residential course in May

Benefits

• A Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship includes a set training budget to cover:
  • Up to two return economy flights from your home country to the UK to undertake fellowship activities.
  • Accommodation while in the UK.
  • Living expenses while in the UK.
  • A period of secondment for approximately 4-6 weeks at a cultural institution in the UK.
  • Individually tailored fellowship learning plan which may include participation in courses conferences and other processional development activities in the UK.
  • Course and conference fees within the UK.
  • Training and development costs within the UK.
  • Travel in the UK.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications are invited from individuals from the following countries:
  • Brazil
  • China
  • Egypt
  • India
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Mexico
  • South Africa
• To be eligible for a Chevening Clore Leadership Fellowship, applicants must:
  • Intend to return to the country they were selected from at the end of the period of study.
  • Hold a degree that is equivalent to at least a good UK second-class honours degree or have equivalent professional training and/or experience.
  • Have completed at least five years’ work, or equivalent experience, by the end 2023.
  • Meet the minimum requirements in accordance with the main fellowships scheme.
  • Have a good working knowledge of English to be assessed in your application form and if you are invited to interview.
  • Not hold British or dual British citizenship.
  • Not be an employee, a former employee, or relative of an employee of His Majesty’s Government, or have been within the last two years from the opening of Chevening applications (including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, all British Embassies/High Commissions, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for International Trade and the UKVI), the British Council, a sponsoring UK university, or a staff member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
• Note: Immediate relatives are defined as parents or step-parents, siblings or step-siblings, children or step-children, spouse, civil partner or unmarried (where the couple have been in a relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership for at least two years).
• Please note that applicants who have previously received financial benefit from a HMG-funded scholarship or fellowship are eligible to apply after a period of five years following the completion of their first HMG funded award. In these cases, applicants will be required to demonstrate their career progression from that point.

For more information, visit Chevening.