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ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships Funding Call

ESRC (delivered through Midlands Graduate School ESRC Doctoral Training Partnerships)

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships Deadline: Submission to relevant DTP by 23 March 2021 (16.00)

These fellowships are aimed at those in the immediate postdoctoral stage of their career.

This opportunity is open to applicants who:

  • Have completed or are expected to complete their PhD at a research organisation that is part of a DTP or CDT. (Please note that you do not have to have completed a PhD funded by ESRC or a DTP.)
  • Have either been awarded a PhD by the submission deadline (23 March 2021) or have passed their viva voce with minor amendments by the application deadline of 23 March 2021 and have been awarded their PhD by the fellowship start date of 1 October 2021.
  • Have no more than 12 months active postdoctoral experience since passing their viva voce (allowing for career breaks) by 23 March 2021.

Permanent members of staff in an academic position with a research component are not eligible for this scheme.

Funding including costs and staffing The total cost for each fellowship can include the following: Fellow’s salary costs; Indirect costs; Estate costs; Up to a maximum of £10,000 for all other costs (to include costs such as mentoring costs, travel and subsistence, conference attendance, training, and fieldwork, for example). Each proposal will need to show these figures as 100% of full Economic Cost (fEC) and the ESRC will meet 80% fEC on the proposals submitted.

The Midlands Graduate School ESRC DTP is inviting applications for the next round of ESRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowships, to be based at one of their partner institutions: Aston University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester, Loughborough University, the University of Nottingham and the University of Warwick.

The objective of this call is to provide support to those who are within 12 months of completing their PhD, to support them in consolidating their PhD, and preparing them for the next stage of their research careers. For the majority, this is likely to be a research career in academia; however, those with a clearly articulated programme of activities to support their transition to a research career outside of academia (e.g. a researcher in public, private, or civil society organisations) will also be considered.

Fellows’ actual programmes or proposed programme of activities should reflect their prior knowledge and experience and be designed to support their longer term research career aspirations. Activities could include but are not limited to:

  • Produce publications in order to help establish track record
  • Engage with a range of different audiences to communicate research findings
  • Build networks to develop impact opportunities and inform and support further development
  • Collaborate with users through an internship or placement to help develop professional and transferrable skills and understanding of users’ organisations, provided they are an integral part of the fellowship
  • Further training to improve research and related skills
  • Developing funding proposals
  • Carry out further limited research (up to 25% of the programme of work) related to their PhD
  • Teaching, if this is aligned with the wider purposes of the fellowship (up to a maximum of six hours per week);
  • Research visits to internationally leading research organisations – either in the UK or abroad – for the purposes of research collaboration, training, and/or access to data or other resources not available at the applicant’s host organisation.

Fellowship holders are not expected to complete all activities on the above list, and the chosen activities should be tailored to the aims of the fellowship and relevant to the fellow’s desired career intentions. Applicants must demonstrate a realistic and practicable programme of work in their proposal; proposals considered to be unrealistic or overambitious are unlikely to be competitive.

Proposals are welcome from both single disciplines and combinations of disciplines but the fellowship activities must be based at least 50% within the social sciences.

The grants provide funding for up to one year full-time, or up to two years part-time.