These records are concerned mainly with the Awards and their financial support, obtained through the participation of private and public entities or individuals. They are the expression of one of the main functions of the BSR being the awards and the award-holders the central focus of its activities. Since the new foundation of the BSR through the Royal Charter of Incorporation (1912), the Rome Scholarships in the Fine Arts were offered for annual competition among British subjects in each of the following branches of Art: Architecture, Sculpture, Decorative Painting and Engraving. These scholarships were administered by the Art Faculties, the Faculty of Painting, the Faculty of Sculpture, the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Engraving, and were tenable for three years.

The Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters (FAHL) administered only one studentship, awarded by the Gilchrist Trust, until the academic year 1928-9, when the Rome Scholarship in Archaeology, then named Rome Scholarship in Classical Studies, was established.