Skip to main content Skip to navigation

School of Engineering

Early Career Fellowships

Index


UK & Internationally Based Applicants


EPSRC Fellowships (Postdoctoral and Early Career)


Applications for these awards are invited only in specific research areas that are linked to the EPSRCs strategic priorities. The areas in which fellowships are available are updated biannually. This scheme employs a person specification to describe the desired attributes for each career stage rather than using the number of years after award of degree. EPSRC has defined three career stages (postdoctoral, early and established career) and the attributes expected at each stage (see Guide for Applicants link above).
  • Eligibility:
    • Applicants are expected to hold a PhD or have equivalent research experience; however, there are no eligibility rules based on years of post-doctoral experience or whether applicants hold (or do not hold) a permanent academic position.
    • There are no nationality restrictions imposed by EPSRC.
    • In the case of postdoctoral awards, it is expected that fellows have gained their PhD by the start date of the fellowship but consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a non-standard career path after their primary degree.
  • Award Duration: 
    • Up to 3 years (Postdoctoral)
    • Up to 5 years (Early Career)
  • Funding Available:
    • There are no restictions on the level of funding that is able to be requested under this scheme. Applicants may request related costs for the programme of research throughout the fellowship.
    • The Postdoctoral award provides funding for basic salary and provides for the employers’ contribution towards National Insurance and superannuation. It can also provide additional funding for reasonable consumables and small items of equipment including non-standard computers, software, travel and subsistence expenses (such as visits to collaborators and conferences), and ‘pooled’ technical effort.
    • Costs associated with the Early Career award may include research staff, technicians, visiting researchers, co-applicants, travel and subsistence, equipment (within the current EPSRC guidelines) consumables, access to facilities and technical support costs.
Deadline: There are no deadlines for this scheme - applications may be submitted at any time. Two prioritisation panels are held each year in January/February and July. Applicants should aim to submit a minimum of 4 months prior to the prioitisation panel they wish their application to be reviewed at.


RAEng Research Fellowships


The RAEng Research Fellowships are designed to promote excellence in engineering. They provide support for high-quality engineers and encourage them to develop successful academic research careers. The number of fellowships offered varies each year. In the 2014 round, there were 7 awards available.
  • Eligibility:
    • Applicants should be about to finish their PhD or have up to a maximum of three years Post-Doctoral research experience.
    • For applicants who have not yet completed their PhD at the time of application, the offer of a Fellowship will be conditional upon the PhD being completed and awarded prior to commencing the Fellowship.
    • Eligibility is not determined by employment status. Therefore Applicants who already have a permanent position are still eligible to apply, as are those with no permanent position, and also those who wish to transfer to the host university from another institution.
    • There are no nationality restrictions, but posts must be held in UK universities.
  • Award Duration: 5 years.
  • Funding Available: There is no limit to how much funding can be requested, but there are constraints placed on what elements can be requested (see 2014 Guidance Notes link above for further information). The scheme does not fund staff salaries other than that of the Fellow (i.e. no additional post-doctoral research fellows can be requested).
Deadline:
  • Institutions are restricted in the number of applications they are able to submit and therefore an internal selection process is used to select the applicants from Warwick. This process usually occurs in October.
  • Stage One Applications are usually due in November.
  • Stage Two Applications are usually due in February.

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships


These awards aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and that the Fellowships should lead to a more permanent academic position. Applications are welcomed in any discipline. Approximately 80 Fellowships are available in 2015. Fellowships can be held at universities or at other institutions of higher education in the UK.
  • Eligibility: 
    • Applications are invited from those with a doctorate who had their doctoral viva not more than five years from the application closing date. All candidates must hold a doctorate or have equivalent research experience by the time they take up the Fellowship.
    • Applicants must not yet have held a full-time established academic post in a UK university or comparable UK institution, nor may Fellows hold such a post concurrently with the Early Career Fellowship.
    • Applicants must either hold a degree from a UK higher education institution at the time of taking up the Fellowship or at the time of application hold an academic position in the UK (e.g. fixed-term lectureship, fellowship).
    • Priority will be given to applicants who show evidence of mobility during their academic careers to date. The intention is to support the career development of those building an academic career within the UK.
  • Award Duration: 3 years
  • Funding Available: The scheme provides a 50% contribution to the Fellow's salary up to a maximum of £24,000 per year. An additional £6,000 per year is available to each Fellow for research expenses.
Deadline: Applications are usually due in March


Royal Society University Research Fellowships


The scheme provides the opportunity to build an independent research career. Those appointed are expected to be strong candidates for permanent posts in universities at the end of their fellowships. The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine and any researcher addressing a direct biomedical research question. The success rate from the 2014 round was 10%.
  • Eligibility: Applicants must:
    • have a PhD (applicants who have just submitted their PhD will not be considered)
    • be in the early stages of their research career and must have between 3 to 8 years of research experience since their PhD by the closing date of the round
    • not hold a permanent post in a university or not-for-profit organization in the European Economic Area (EEA)
    • be a citizen of the EEA or a be a Swiss citizen (or have a relevant connection to the EEA or Switzerland)
  • Award Duration: 5 years.
  • Funding Available: The scheme provides funding for 80% of the Fellow's basic salary costs up to £38,165 per year. Research expenses up to £13,000 for the first year and up to £11,000 annually thereafter will also be provided.
Deadline: Applications are usually due in September


Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships

Click here for the Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships Scheme Notes 2015

This scheme is for outstanding scientists in the UK at an early stage of their research career who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances such as parenting or caring responsibilities or health issues. Female candidates are particularly invited to apply. The success rate for 2014 was 8%.

  • Eligibility:

    • Applicants must be at an early stage of their research career (have completed their PhD but have no more than 6 years of research experience post PhD by the closing date of the round)
    • not hold a permanent post in a university or not-for-profit organisation in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland
    • be a citizen of the EEA or a be a Swiss citizen (or have a relevant connection to the EEA or Switzerland)
  • Award Duration: 5 years
  • Funding Available: The scheme provides funding for 80% of the Fellow's basic salary costs up to £38,165 per year. Research expenses up to £13,000 for the first year and up to £11,000 annually thereafter will also be provided.

Deadline: Applications are usually due in January.


Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowships


Research Fellowships in Science and Engineering are intended to give early-career scientists or engineers of exceptional promise an opportunity to conduct a research project of their own instigation. Approximately eight awards are made each year, one of which is designated the Brunel Fellowship. Applications from qualified engineering researchers are particular encouraged and the Brunel Fellowship is specifically reserved for them.
  • Eligibility:
    • Candidates must be in possession of a recent PhD, or equivalent qualification (normally with no more than3 years post doctoral experience) or be in the final stages of their PhD studies, which must be successfully completed before the award of a Fellowship can be confirmed.
    • The research should be carried out at a different Institution from the one where the candidate’s PhD research was undertaken.
  • Award Duration: 3 years.
  • Funding Available: £30,000 stipend payable for year 1, and £31,500 for years 2 and 3. £3,000 per annum towards additional costs, including travel to present at relevant conferences.
Deadline: Applications are usually due in February


Wellcome Trust / Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowships

For outstanding postdoctoral scientists wishing to build their own UK-based independent research career addressing an important biomedical question. Research can range from the molecules and cells vital to life and their role in the global spread of disease, to clinical and public health research seeking to improve the quality of healthcare. It can be based in the laboratory, clinic or field, and may involve experimental or theoretical approaches.
  • Eligibility: Applicants must:
    • Be no more than seven years from the date of their PhD viva
    • Have spent less than two years with their current department if they plan to apply for a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship in the same location. Please note that if an applicant holds an established post they are not eligible to apply for a fellowship to be held at their current employing organisation.
    • Have made intellectual contributions to research that have been published in leading journals, and be able to demonstrate their potential to carry out independent research.
  • Award Duration: 5 years
  • Funding Available: This scheme will fund the basic salary costs of the fellow, research assistance (normally a graduate research assistant or technician; requests for additional research staff may be considered where fieldwork or clinical studies in a low- or middle-income country are proposed), travel and subsistance and consumables.
Deadline: The application process for this scheme is two-stage - a Preliminary Application and a Full Application. Applications for this scheme are considered twice a year with deadlines for the Preliminary Applications in April and November.


Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships

This fellowship provides a unique opportunity for the most promising newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to make an early start in developing their independent research careers, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.
  • Eligibility: Applicants must be in the final year of their PhD studies or have no more than one year of postdoctoral research experience from the date of their PhD viva to the full application submission deadline.
  • Award Duration: 4 years
  • Funding Available: £250,000 to support the basic salary of the fellow and eligible research expenses (materials and consumables; animals; travel and overseas subsistence; support to attend scientific meetings; small items of equipment, e.g. laptop; and fieldwork and data collection).
Deadline: The application process for this scheme is two-stage - a Preliminary Application and a Full Application. Applications for this scheme are considered twice a year with deadlines for the Preliminary Applications in May and September.


RAEng Enterprise Fellowships


Enterprise Fellowships provide funding and support to outstanding entrepreneurial engineering researchers, working at a UK University, to enable them to develop a spin-out business around their technological idea.
  • Eligibility:
    • Business ideas must address an unmet need, offer a potential new solution and have a realistic expectation that the innovation will be developed further by the market.
    • Applicants must be working at a UK HEI, at post-doctoral level or above, in an engineering department (or engineering focussed research area). PhD students must complete their PhD and have it awarded prior to commencing an Enterprise Fellowship.
    • Applicants must confirm that they are able to remain and work legally in the UK for the duration of the Fellowship.
    • This Fellowship will not fund further research work.
    • It should be the intention of the Fellow to remain with the business in a full-time capacity following the Fellowship.
  • Award Duration: 12 months
  • Funding Available: Up to £85,000. Up to £35,000 of this can be used for salary support of the Enterprise Fellow.
Deadline: Applications are usually due in September


Philip Leverhulme Prizes


Philip Leverhulme Prizes are designed to recognise and facilitate the work of outstanding research scholars of proven achievement, who have made and are continuing to make original and significant contributions to knowledge. The subject areas in which awards are available change each year - the subject areas for 2015 includes Physics while the 2016 subject areas include Chemistry and Engineering. See the link below for full details of the subject areas for 2015 and 2016.
  • Eligibility: Candidates must hold a post (irrespective of the source of funding) in a UK institution of higher education or research and should have been awarded their highest degree (e.g. Master’s or PhD) not more than ten years prior to the closing date.
  • Award Duration: 2 - 3 years
  • Funding Available: Up to £100,000
Deadline: Applications are usually due in May


Marie Curie Individual Fellowships (IFs)

Supports Experienced Researchers (those holding a doctoral degree or at least 4 years research experience) in undertaking a project of their choosing. Please see the Marie Curie Funding page for more details.

ERC Starting Grants

ERC Starting Grants aim to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe. The scheme targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders. It will support the creation of excellent new research teams.
  • Eligibility: 
    • For researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (or equivalent degree)
    • Applicants for the ERC Starting Grants - called Principal Investigators (PI) - must have already shown the potential for research independence and evidence of scientific maturity.
    • Applicants should also be able to demonstrate a promising track-record of early achievements appropriate to their research field and career stage, including significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals, or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals of their respective field. They may also demonstrate a record of invited presentations in well-established international conferences, granted patents, awards, prizes etc.
  • Award Duration: Up to 5 years.
  • Funding Available: Normally grants will be € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). However, an additional € 0.5 million can be made available to cover eligible “start-up” costs for researchers moving from a third country to the EU or an associated country and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities.


Overseas Applicants Only

Royal Society Newton Fellowships 

The scheme provides the opportunity for the best early stage post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to work at UK research institutions for a period of two years. The success rate in 2014 was 8%.
  • Eligibility:Applicants must:
    • have a PhD, or will have a PhD by the time the funding starts
    • have no more than 7 years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of application (discounting career breaks, but including teaching experience and/or time spent in industry)
    • be working outside the UK
    • not hold UK citizenship
    • be competent in oral and written English
    • have a clearly defined and mutually-beneficial research proposal agreed with a UK host scientist
  • Award Duration: 2 years.
  • Funding Available: Funding consists of £24,000 per annum for subsistence costs, and up to £8,000 per annum research expenses, as well as a one-off payment of up to £2,000 for relocation expenses.
Deadline: Applications are usually due in February

 

Let us know you agree to cookies

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Please let us know if you agree to functional, advertising and performance cookies. You can update your cookie preferences at any time.

Cookie policy