Current Fellowship Schemes
List of fellowship schemes with internal deadlines
Call details
UKRI have issued a call for applications to Round 6 of the Future Leaders Fellowship. This cross-UK Research and Innovation scheme supports early career researchers and innovators with outstanding potential in universities, UK registered businesses, and other research and user environments including research councils' institutes and laboratories.
The support will enable each fellow to tackle ambitious and challenging research and innovation and develop their own careers.
Fellows will benefit from:
- A scheme that is committed to supporting excellent researchers and innovators regardless of their background. Fellowships can be held on a part-time basis for personal commitments and/or as part of a job share.
- Networking across their cohort of some of the UK’s most talented researchers and innovators from different disciplines and sectors, putting them at the forefront of modern, interdisciplinary research.
- A career boost, including time and investment for training and professional development, providing a route to an open-ended contract for academically hosted fellows (in line with organisational policies and practices).
Eligibility criteria
Future Leaders Fellowships support applicants from diverse career paths. These fellowships are for early career academics and innovators who are transitioning to or establishing independence. Senior academics and innovators are not permitted to apply. As the FLF aims to enable the fellow to transition to or establish their research/innovation independence, applicants who have already achieved research/innovation independence (e.g. by securing funding aimed at this career stage, or by already managing their own significant programme of work within a business) will not be competitive. There are no eligibility rules based on years since PhD or whether the applicant currently holds a permanent/open-ended academic position or job role.
Further information on eligibility can be found on the UKRI website
University of Edinburgh Internal selection process
There are two stages to this call – the outline proposal stage and the full proposal stage.
All three Colleges will run an internal selection process for the outline proposal stage, with a University-level approach applying to the full application stage. For your College process at outline proposal stage, please see relevant information below.
Outline Proposal Stage
- Monday 2nd November 2020 – Colleges to inform ERO of confirmed nominated candidates.
- 4pm Monday 30th November 2020 – ERO deadline for final checks on outline proposal. Applicants please liaise with their Research Funding Specialist at the earliest opportunity; last-minute applications may not be checked, with the risk that the funder may reject the proposal.
School process
The College deadline is 9.00am on 2nd November 2020. By this time the School should have selected the preferred applicant and confirmed the nomination to College. The College will then inform ERO which applicants have been selected by each School to submit Outline applications to UKRI.
- 16 October 2020 - 4pm: Deadline for Outline proposal emailed to researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk. Please use Outline Proposal stage form
- w/c 19 October 2020: School panel to select proposal to go forward and proposers will receive general feedback.
- 30 October 2020 - 4PM Deadline for final Outline proposal to be submitted to researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk. The application should include a PDF copy of the Outline JeS form, a draft two-page Case for Support, applicant CV and HoS statement (at this stage briefly outlining the suitability to scheme and confirmation of commitments to tapered salary support and open-ended appointment).
- 2 November 2020 (9am deadline): School to confirm to College the details of the preferred applicant, with a reserve applicant if one has been selected.
A reminder of the current scheme objectives and requirements:
- To develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK.
- To foster new research and innovation career paths including those at the academic/business and interdisciplinary boundaries, and facilitate movement of people between disciplines, organisations and sectors.
- To provide sustained funding and resources for the best early career researchers and innovators.
- To provide long-term, flexible funding to tackle difficult and novel challenges, and support adventurous, ambitious programmes.
- Significant support from the hosting organisation(s) is expected, including a tapered salary commitment from year 3 leading to an open-ended position during or at the end of the Fellowship.
Prospective applicants should liaise with the School's Research Office and the Research Funding Specialist throughout.
"This scheme is for outstanding scientists who are in the early stages of their research career and have the potential to become leaders in their field. These long term fellowships provide the opportunity and freedom to build an independent research career in the UK or Republic of Ireland and pursue cutting-edge scientific research." More info...
There is no demand management or selection process within the school for this scheme but to allow for enough turnaround time for completing department support letters from the Head of School, applicants should send draft copies of their application and suggested versions of support letters to researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk by the deadline below. If applicants need help starting a support letter then the GeoSciences Research Support Office can help find successful examples to draw from.
Internal deadline: midday Friday 21st August 2020
The application documents do not need to be the final versions by the deadline but should have enough information that the letter of support can be completed with meaningful personalised content.
For any fellowship scheme, interested applicants must get in touch with researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk as soon as possible so that we can check eligibility and for any scheme restrictions, and provide the right support to guide them through application procedures. This is especially important for anyone who is not currently working in the school because they may not know about internal deadlines or selection processes when demand management is required and these might be far in advance of the funder's official deadlines.
"The NERC Independent Research Fellowship (IRF) scheme is designed to develop scientific leadership among the most promising early-career environmental scientists, by giving all fellows five years' support, which will allow them sufficient time to develop their research programmes and to gain international recognition." More info...
There is no demand management or selection process within the school for this scheme but to allow for enough turnaround time for completing department support letters from the Head of School, applicants should send draft copies of their application and suggested versions of support letters to researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk by the deadline below. If applicants need help starting a support letter then the GeoSciences Research Support Office can help find successful examples to draw from.
Internal deadline: midday Friday 18th September 2020
The application documents do not need to be the final versions by the deadline but should have enough information that the letter of support can be completed with meaningful personalised content.
For any fellowship scheme, interested applicants must get in touch with researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk as soon as possible so that we can check eligibility and for any scheme restrictions, and provide the right support to guide them through application procedures. This is especially important for anyone who is not currently working in the school because they may not know about internal deadlines or selection processes when demand management is required and these might be far in advance of the funder's official deadlines.
IMPORTANT: Anyone interested in applying MUST contact GeoSciences Research Organisation researchorg.geos@ed.ac.uk to register their interest as soon as possible.
College Process:
"The application deadline for this year’s round of Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships (RFs), Engineering for Development Research Fellowships (EDRFs) and Orthopaedic UK Research Fellowships (OURFs) is 21 September 2020. These prestigious fellowships are aimed at early career post-doctoral researchers from all branches of engineering; please note the definition is broad (see guidance notes in further information below). EDRF proposals must meet ODA rules and OURFs must support work in the musculoskeletal disease field, in preventing the onset of musculoskeletal conditions, early diagnosis to control disease onset and pain, treatment strategies to improve quality of life or effective management of debilitating and painful conditions.
The University of Edinburgh can submit a maximum of 3 applications (consisting of RFs and/or EDRFs) to this year's call, with 1 additional submission allowed if considered to belong to a group persistently underrepresented within UK engineering. Applications for an OURF are excluded from this application limit.
We are expected to establish an institutional mechanism which identifies the highest calibre candidates, is proactive in encouraging researchers from underrepresented groups to apply and ensures consideration of inclusivity and diversity. We therefore ask Schools to establish an internal review process consistent with these expectations, which results in the identification of candidates to be submitted to the College selection process. Schools are asked to be mindful of the restriction on application numbers and the assessment of the level of support and host commitments, and to put forward an appropriate number of suitably strong and ideally diverse candidates to this College internal selection process. It is essential for all candidates to consult with their Head of School, as soon as possible, to discuss the potential submission of an application and discuss and secure the required School support. In order to complete the internal selection process in time for the the successful candidates to hone their applications before the 21 September 2020 deadline, we ask that the selected applications from each School are sent to katherine.quinn@ed.ac.uk for College consideration by 9am on 13 August 2020. Given the breadth of this call, it is also advertised through the Deans of Research across the other two Colleges, with an invitation to submit through College to the internal selection process a draft proposal from any School/Centre/Institute which fits these EPSRC call criteria.
The College selection process will involve consideration of a draft of the application, with details, including page, word limits as outlined in the guidance notes below:
- CV (3 pages max; please note that this should not include personal data such as D.O.B, gender or nationality).
- Applicant profile (600 words).
- Project title and abstract (10 words and 300 words).
- Case for support – to include sections on:
- Goals and objectives (200 words)
- Timeliness and novelty (250 words)
- Methodology (1,500 words) – images and diagrams are also allowed as part of the proposal, but would need to be separated at submission stage (see guidance on Images and Diagrams, p14)
- Reference list (700 words)
- Project Timeline (Gantt chart or equivalent) – single PDF document
- Project Management (200 words)
- Risks (200 words)
- Collaborations (500 words) – with Letters of Support if available
- Beneficiaries and impact (200 words)
- Exploitation (200 words)
- Dissemination and Public Engagement (200 words)
- Choice of Host institution (200 words)
- Mentoring (150 words)
- Ambitions and future plans (200 words)
-
Resources requested.
- Cost table – please contact your local research office for assistance in completing this
- Justification of costs (400 words)
- If an EDRF application, an ODA justification statement is also required. (500 words)
- School/Centre outline statement of support: This will be required for the College selection process, and can take the form of a short statement or bullet point list outlining the suitability of the applicant and support to be committed (if successful).
Those candidates selected to submit will receive a summary of review comments to inform submission enhancement. Those not selected will be also be offered feedback e.g. in case development for other funding schemes."
Further information
Please note that candidates must have a PhD and have been awarded their PhD Certificate no more than four years prior to the 21 September 2020 submission deadline. However, if candidates have had maternity/paternity leave, or other extenuating circumstances, this will be taken into consideration if the relevant dates and detail are provided within the candidate’s application.
Further information on the call is available at:
- https://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-prizes/grants/support-for-research/raeng-research-fellowship/how-to-apply
- https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/other/research-fellowships-guidance-notes - see eligibility criteria (p6) and full list of a broad range of engineering categories (p11-13);.
Research Fellowships - Please note: For the 2020/21 round, the maximum contribution of £500,000 from the Academy might increase subject to confirmation of additional funding by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – the funder of the Research Fellowships scheme – prior to the October 2021 start date for awards. If the additional funding is available, the Academy will ask successful applicants to submit an updated budget and plan for the additional funding. However, in case the additional funding is not available, the applicant should be clear what work programme will be deliverable within the £500,000 limit and any other resources that the applicant is confident of obtaining.
EDRFs – Please note: Unlike in previous rounds, applications for EDRFs 2020/21 should not, at the application stage, provide a cost table of additional funding above the £500,000 standard limit to support international collaboration. For successful 2020/21 EDRF applications, the Academy will request a short proposal for additional funding, subject to confirmation of future funding allocations within the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). However, since the possibility of additional funding is not expected to be confirmed until late-2021, the applicant should be clear what work programme will be deliverable within the £500,000 limit and any other resources that the applicant is confident of obtaining.