Overseas Institutes and Societies

The Academy acts as sponsor for fifteen institutions engaged in academic research and fieldwork overseas, which are located in the Mediterranean region, the Near and Middle East, South and South-East Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. They are variously constituted and all (except the Committee for South-East Asian Studies) are autonomous bodies. The institutions provide a valuable scholarly presence alongside British diplomatic and cultural representation in the regions where they operate, and their work is conducted in collaboration with a wide variety of academic institutions and authorities overseas. They provide the means to enable British scholars to undertake original research and fieldwork in areas of major scholarly interest overseas; the means of publishing and disseminating the results of that work; and, in some cases, an academic base offering a range of scholarly and logistical support services, including accommodation, library, archive and other facilities. In addition, the institutions maintain an active programme of lectures, conferences and other activities, both in the UK and overseas. Archaeology has usually been perceived by most of the institutions and their scholarly constituencies as their core activity, but all have a wide spread of interests in other disciplines.

In addition to money provided by the Academy deriving from public funds, each body has income of its own, from subscriptions, donations and grants in support of specific projects from foundations and other similar bodies.
Each institution publishes its own Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, and further information is available on request from the respective institutions.