The Handel Institute (registered charity no. 296615) was established in 1987 to advance education by promoting the study and appreciation of, and supporting and publishing research on, the music and life of George Frideric Handel and his contemporaries. To this end, The Handel Institute:

• nominates two members, one of whom is currently joint General Editor, to the editorial board of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe. The Institute is the principal means whereby British scholarship is channelled into the edition.

• nominates two members to the board of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation (GCHF), which was created jointly by The Thomas Coram Foundation (now known as Coram Family) and The Handel Institute to realize the vision of the late Gerald Coke, the Institute’s first patron, for the future of his magnificent Handel collection. The GCHF is responsible for funding and managing the Gerald Coke Handel Collection, which is housed in The Foundling Museum at 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1.

• organizes academic conferences, and study days related to forthcoming performances.
  • The conferences so far have been international and mostly triennial:
    • Handel Collections and their History (1990; papers published by OUP, 1993)
    • Handel in the 1730s (1993)
    • Handel and His Rivals (1996)
    • Great among the Nations (1999)
    • Handel in Cities and Houses (2002)
    • Performing Handel - Then and Now (2005)
    • Commemorating Handel (2007)
    • Purcell, Handel and Literature (2009)
      in collaboration with the Purcell Society, the Open University, and the Institute of Musical Research (University of London)
  • The study days have included:
    • ‘From Passion to Oratorio’ (London, 2002)
    • ‘Serse in Perspective’ (Cambridge, 2003)
    • Handel's Opera Tamerlano (Cambridge, 2005)
    • Handel’s Opera Imeneo (Cambridge, 2007)
    • Handel’s Opera Ariodante (Cambridge, 2009)