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Independent Research Fellowship Schemes

Fellowships are an excellent source of funding that can be hugely beneficial in a researcher’s career development. There are a range of different types of Fellowships available to support people at different stages in their career, from newly qualified PhD students embarking on their first Postdoctoral position through to senior researchers at the Professorial level. Some of the main Fellowship opportunities are listed below. Please always check the funder's guidance for further details and confirmation of deadlines.

Postdoctoral Training Fellowships

Postdoctoral training fellowships offer early career researchers an opportunity to undertake a period of independent research within a well-supported environment, normally supervised within a more senior researcher’s laboratory. Applicants have normally recently completed their PhD or have a few years postdoctoral experience. These fellowships enable the fellow to build on their postdoctoral training, broaden their horizons and start to develop their independent research plans.


Alzheimer's Research UK Research FellowshipLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: tbc

Research Fellowships support excellent non-clinical researchers in the early stages of their career to begin an independent project in a well-supported environment, thereby supporting their eventual trajectory to independence. For a detailed description of the skills and training you will be expected to demonstrate, please read our Early Career Researcher Framework. Fellows are required to have secured a Supervisor, a senior established investigator in the institution where the Fellowship is to be held.

BBSRC Fellowship (previously the Discovery Fellowship)

Next deadline: May 2025 (TBC)

The Discovery Fellowship will provide support for researchers wishing to undertake independent research and gain leadership skills within a host laboratory. Awards are for three years and of a value of up to £500,000 (funded at 80% fEC). This can be used to support personal salary as well as travel and subsistence, training activities, and research consumables, but not equipment.

BHF Immediate Postdoctoral Basic Science Research FellowshipsLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: open - no set deadlines

BHF Immediate Postdoctoral Basic Science Research Fellowships provide an opportunity for the most promising newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to make an early start in developing their independent cardiovascular research careers in an established institution in the UK.

EPSRC Synthetic Biology Postdoctoral FellowshipLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: SCHEME CURRENTLY PAUSED

Apply for a fellowship focusing on the engineering challenges of delivering synthetic biology as a mature technology.

Human Frontier Science Programme Postdoctoral FellowshipsLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: 26 September 2024

The HFSP fellowship program supports proposals for frontier, potentially transformative research in the life sciences. Applications for high-risk projects are particularly encouraged. The projects should be interdisciplinary in nature and should challenge existing paradigms by using novel approaches and techniques. Scientifically, they should address an important problem or a barrier to progress in the field.
HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early career scientists to broaden their research skills by moving into new areas of study while working in a new country.
Two different fellowships are available:
Long-Term Fellowships (LTF) are for applicants with a PhD on a biological topic who want to embark on a novel and frontier project focussing on the life sciences.
Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (CDF) are for applicants who hold a doctoral degree from a non-biological discipline (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering or computer sciences) and who have not worked in the life sciences before.

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships

Next deadline: 20 February 2025

This scheme is for early career researchers, with a research record but who have not yet held a full-time permanent academic post, to undertake a significant piece of publishable work. Fellowships are tenable for 3 years on a full-time basis, and it is anticipated that a Fellowship will lead to a more permanent academic position.
The scheme provides the Fellow’s salary and research costs of <£6,000/year.

L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in ScienceLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: tbc

International Fellowships support promising young women researchers in the life sciences at doctoral or postdoctoral level. Candidates must be female and no more than 35 years old. Preference will be given to candidates already possessing a PhD degree (or equivalent) in the field of life sciences at the time of application. However, applications from doctoral students will be considered.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions: Postdoctoral FellowshipLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: September 2025

Supports the mobility of post-doctoral researchers within and beyond Europe - as well as helping to attract the best foreign researchers to work in the EU. The grant usually covers two years' salary, a mobility allowance, research costs and overheads for the host institution. Individual researchers submit proposals for funding in liaison with their planned host organisation.

Royal Society Newton International FellowshipsLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: 19 March 2025

This fellowship is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.

University of Warwick Institute of Advanced Study Early Career Fellowships

Next deadline: tbc

This programme supports completing Warwick doctoral candidates in the transition phase between their doctoral and independent postdoctoral research careers. The part time (50% FTE) Fellowships are awarded for an initial six months, with the option to extend to ten months. During this time, Fellows participate in the Accolade Training Programme - designed to prepare participants for independent academic careers. In addition, the Fellows establish independent research profiles that contribute to their ongoing career development.

Wellcome Early Career AwardsLink opens in a new window

Next deadline: 25 February 2025

This scheme provides funding for early-career researchers from any discipline who are ready to develop their research identity. Through innovative projects, they will deliver shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing. By the end of the award, they will be ready to lead their own independent research programme. There are normally three deadlines per year, in February, May and October