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School of Life Sciences

SLS-WMS Process for applying for Independent Research Fellowships

This new process will apply to applications for schemes with deadlines in 2025

For information on applying for Fellowships with the School of Life Sciences or Warwick Medical School in 2024, please see the individual department webpages.

For Fellowship deadlines in 2025 onwards, the School of Life Sciences (SLS) and Warwick Medical School (WMS) are introducing a joint internal review and selection process to identify suitable, prospective Fellows, and provide support in planning and preparing their application(s) for Fellowships schemes across the Life and Medical Sciences.

This process runs twice a year in the Spring and Autumn to capture Fellowship deadlines due over the following 6 months. If you are selected in this process, your chosen department will then support you in preparing your Fellowship application.

Please be aware that some Fellowship schemes will be subject to additional institutional selection processes depending on the requirements of the funder/scheme, e.g. UKRI Future Leader Fellowships.

If you are considering applying for an Independent Research Fellowship at Warwick, we first encourage you to contact individual staff members whose research area most closely matches yours and start a conversation about how your research interests complement Warwick's areas of strength.

Please contact (SLS) or for more information

Process Timelines

Autumn

Expression of Interest due: 1 November 2024

Warwick Visit and Presentation: 6 December 2024

Fellowship Deadlines: January - July 2025

Including:

  • Wellcome Early Career Awards (Feburary, May/June)
  • MRC Career Development Award (April)
  • Wellcome Career Development Awards (April)
  • BBSRC Fellowships (May)
  • UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (July)*

*Due to the UKRI insitutional cap on applications, there will be additional Warwick Internal Selection processes for this scheme.

Spring

Expression of Interest due:Spring 2025

Warwick Visit and Presentation: Late Spring 2025

Fellowship Deadlines: August - December 2025

Including:

  • Royal Society University Research Fellowship (September)
  • MRC Career Development Award (September)
  • MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship (September)
  • Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin (October)
  • NERC Independant Research Fellowship (October)
  • Wellcome Early Career Awards (October)
  • Wellcome Career Development Awards (July, November)

How to Apply

1. Expression of Interest

If you are interested in joining SLS or WMS on an independently funded fellowship, please submit an Expression of Interest and CV, using the following templates:

Expression of Interest Resume for Research and Innovation
Advice on aspects to consider when planning an application can be found in the "Advice on planning a Fellowship Proposal" section at the bottom of the page. Please send your Expression of Interest documents to

2. Expressions of Interest Review

Expressions of Interest will be reviewed by a panel convened from across SLS and WMS within 2 weeks of the closing date. The panel will use the following assessment criteria to make a decision on whether we can support you Fellowship application at this time

Assessment Criteria

  • Research and Innovation Excellence

  • Plans for the Fellow's Career Development

  • Suitability of the research environment to the Fellow and research plans.

Outcomes

Following the review, applicants will be informed of whether SLS or WMS can support their Fellowship application(s) at this stage. All applicants will be provided with constuctive feedback to help them develop their research plans.

3. Visiting Warwick and presenting your plans

The Fellowship candidates selected from the review process will be invited to Warwick to a Fellowships event, during which they will be able to see the facilities, meeting members of our research community and present their proposal plans to the schools in a short seminar.

During the Seminar, you will be asked to give a short presentation covering:

  • An overview of your proposed research.
  • The expected outcomes and impact of your research.
  • How you propose to use the Fellowship to develop your career.
  • Why you consider Warwick and SLS/WMS the most suitable organisation to support your Fellowship and career development.

The presentation will be followed by some time for questions and discussion of your plans.

4. Supporting the Proposal development

Following the Hustings, Fellows will be supported throughout the development of their application(s):

  • Dedicated Research Officer in R&IS to support the costings and approval process
  • Support from technology managers to discuss any equipment access needs
  • Internal review panel to provide feedback on your application.

Some final advice for planning a Fellowship Proposal

Fellowship schemes are highly competititve, but when planning your application we would encourage you to consider the following questions to help you plan a well-rounded proposal:

  • What is your defined biological question and/or hypothesis based approach?
  • What is the novelty, timeliness and expected impact of your proposed research?
  • What is your unique selling point, perspective or approach?
  • Do you have freedom to pursue this line of research? (e.g. agreement with a former supervisor and their support)
  • How does the project proposal fit strategically with the School of Life Sciences/Warwick Medical School?
  • Have you identified a suitable supervisor, mentor or collaborators at Warwick?
  • Will your application benefit from any infrastructure or facilities available at Warwick?
  • Does your CV demonstrate that your career is on an upward trajectory and that you are ready to embark on an independent research career at this point?
  • What drives you to have an independent research career and are you able to articulate that?