Provenance Researcher - Human Remains Collection (24 Mths FTC)

About The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an independent membership organisation dedicated to the education, training and advancement of surgeons, dental surgeons, doctors, and various individuals throughout healthcare who are involved in the surgical care of patients. The College has a current membership approaching 32,000 and growing, with members spanning over 100 countries around the world.

From our founding in 1505, the College has been committed to the advancement of surgery and driving patient safety standards worldwide. In our 515-year history, there has never been a better time to join the College than now.

Working with us

At the College we aim to embrace views from across the organisation, sharing common goals and values for the betterment of healthcare through the advancement of surgical and dental professionals. We aim to develop teams that are reflective of the needs of our members and maximise the potential of every employee.

To reflect the varying needs across the organisation, we offer a range of policies and benefits for our workforce including a generous 42 days annual leave, flexible working practices, enhanced employer pensions contribution and various discounts throughout the College including the Ten Hill Place Hotel, 1505 Café and free entry to Surgeons’ Hall Museums.

If you’d like more information about this role, please contact recruitment@rcsed.ac.uk

Project: Recovering Histories: The McNab Human Remains Provenance Research Project

Project Funders: This project is made possible by Museums Galleries Scotland and by a generous legacy from John Winton McNab.

Surgeons' Hall Museum holds a complex medical human remains collection, one of the largest and most significant of its kind in the world. Much of the collection was acquired before modern standards of consent and documentation, and the records that survive were shaped around pathology, diagnosis and the interests of those who assembled the collection rather than the individuals represented within it.

This two year project will improve what the Museum knows about this collection, including the people in it. Working through historic catalogues, medical case notes, College and Museum minutes and archival records, you will investigate origins, acquisition contexts and life histories of these people, and integrate your findings into the Museum's Collections Management System. Your research will inform catalogue records, future interpretation and displays, published listings, and the Museum's preparedness for any future return of collections.

In March 2026, the College’s Trustees approved a new Human Remains in Collections Policy, developed with an expert panel drawn from across the UK and Ireland, committing the Museum to provenance research, transparency, community engagement and readiness for return. This post directly supports the work to put this policy into practice.

You will report to the Curator and be supported by the Museum's Provenance Research Working Group, which brings together colleagues from collections, conservation, archives, learning and senior leadership, including a specialist Human Remains Conservator. This work involves sustained engagement with sensitive and sometimes distressing material, and supervision, peer support and training are built into the post.

In the final six months you will work on site with three Scottish university medical collections in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, reviewing and enhancing their documentation, and will offer short consultancy visits to smaller Scottish museums holding human remains. The project concludes with a publication and a national conference at Surgeons' Hall, sharing the methods and findings across the sector.

The role is based in Edinburgh, with travel to partner institutions in the final phase. Reasonable travel and accommodation costs are met by the project.

You will be educated to degree level in a relevant discipline, such as history, anthropology, archaeology, medicine, pathology or museum studies, or hold equivalent professional experience, and have proven experience conducting research using historical records, archives or museum collections. You will understand the ethical issues surrounding human remains in museum or academic contexts and be comfortable working with confidential or ethically complex material. You will have experience working with collections databases and digital cataloguing systems such as Axiell or equivalent and be familiar with documentation standards and terminology audits.

You will have excellent analytical and organisational skills, with the ability to manage large volumes of complex data, and the ability to produce high quality written outputs including reports, summaries and catalogue entries. You will be self-motivated, able to plan and carry out independent research, and a clear and confident communicator in both verbal and written formats. Experience of provenance research, knowledge of UK museum policies relating to human remains and repatriation, or experience working with medical, anatomical, ethnographical, or archaeological human remains collections would be advantageous.

This role may particularly appeal to those who want to work on collections of real ethical complexity and see their findings shape policy, practice and public understanding.

Closing Date 14 September 2026. Dates for interviews will be 28 September 2026. Candidates who have been shortlisted for interview will be contacted in the first instance by email.

Our thanks

This project, Recovering Histories: The McNab Human Remains Provenance Research Project, is made possible by Museums Galleries Scotland and by a generous legacy from John Winton McNab. We are grateful to both for backing work that is complex, long-term and genuinely needed.The application is a tool for helping us to shortlist candidates for interview and as a basis for the interview itself. Any decision to shortlist you for interview will be based solely upon the information you supply on your application.

If you have any difficulty in completing the forms or require the forms in an alternative format, please contact the Recruitment Department by e-mail: recruitment@rcsed.ac.uk

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an equal opportunities employer. If you consider you have a disability (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) and have any specific requirements, or require assistance or reasonable adjustments (for example, information in larger font) to be made for you during the selection process, we will do our best to assist you. You are given the opportunity to express your needs by attaching a separate sheet to your application form or by contacting the HR Department on +44 (0) 131 527 1587 or by e-mail: recruitment@rcsed.ac.uk

The Equal Opportunities Monitoring form can be returned with your application. It will be retained within the HR Department and used solely for monitoring purposes; it will not be made available to the short-listing panel.

Thank you for your interest in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. We look forward to receiving your completed application by the Closing Date. If you need any further information, do not hesitate to contact us.