Early Career Fellowship Schemes

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships

The scheme for 2023 is now open (as of 21/09/2022).

The Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship is a highly prestigious, fiercely competitive, post-doctoral award for researchers who are near the start of their career. 

The internal selection stages of the Fellowship application process are conducted in two-parts.  First, applications are reviewed by the faculty.  Second, up to two applications from the faculty will then be forwarded to the Isaac Newton Trust (who provide half the funding for Leverhulme Fellows) for review in mid January.  Only applications successful at both stages will then be cleared to the Leverhulme Trust for review.

The deadline to submit Stage 1 applications to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for the Isaac Newton Trust matching-funding is midnight on 27th November 2022. 

Purpose

Early Career Fellowships 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.

Duration

Fellowships are tenable for three years on a full-time basis. The Trust will support requests to hold the award part-time over a proportionately longer period for health related reasons, disability or childcare commitments. 

Eligibility

Full details on the LECF scheme can be found at www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career-fellowships. 

Details on the Isaac Newton Trust's matched-funding stages can be found at www.newtontrust.cam.ac.uk/ECFs/LeverhulmeECF with specific application guidance at www.newtontrust.cam.ac.uk/ECFs/LeverhulmeECF/Leverhulmeapps

Applications

Applications to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies should be sent to administrator@ames.cam.ac.uk by midnight on 27th November 2022.

The application process to the Faculty (consisting of a coversheet, CV, publications list, current research and proposed research outline + references) is identical that required by the Isaac Newton Trust and details can be found in the "Applications for the internal competition" section at www.newtontrust.cam.ac.uk/ECFs/LeverhulmeECF/Leverhulmeapps

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships

The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships are typically for three years and cover the salary of the Postdoctoral Fellow to work full-time on the Fellowship, small-scale research expenses, costs towards the time of a mentor and the host institution's estates and indirect costs.  

The aim of the British Academy (BA) in making these awards is to offer opportunities for outstanding early career researchers to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment, which will develop their curriculum vitae and improve their prospects of obtaining permanent lecturing posts by the end of the Fellowship. The primary emphasis is on completion of a significant piece of publishable research, which will be assisted by full membership of an academic community of established scholars working in similar fields.

Internal selection procedure at the University 

The British Academy stipulates that institutions must operate internal competitions in advance of the BA deadlines to ensure only the most appropriate applications are submitted to the BA. The Research Strategy Office (RSO) of the University manages the internal competition according to the University's restricted calls procedure. The RSO requires all departments to solicit and rank Expressions of Interest from candidates according to the following procedure:

• Prospective candidates must submit their intial expression of interest to administrator@ames.cam.ac.uk before the 12th of August 2022 faculty deadline.

• Expressions of interest will include

  • a CV (2 A4 sides maximum)

  • a list of publications

  • a 750 word (excluding footnotes) preliminary project proposal.  The pleminary project proposal should outline:

    • outline the research problem(s) you are seeking to address and say why it is distinctive;

    • how your proposed research will tackle this research problem(s) – its design and methodology;

    • how your proposed research will significantly change the established landscape;

    • how your project fits with the timeframe of the award (its feasibility);

    • why Cambridge is the “best-fit” environment for this project;

    • the appropriateness and demonstration of commitment of the proposed mentor(s).

• A copy of the indicative Preliminary Project Proposal template will be updated in August once the British Academy publishes their guidelines for 2022-23.

• Prospective candidates must stipulate an academic mentor. This person MUST be an employee of the Faculty during the period of mentorship so if a potential mentor currently has a different status they should enquire with the Faculty as to eligibility. 

• The Faculty will then rank expressions of interest, providing internal letters of support, and submit a Faculty ranking to the RSO by their deadline of the 5th of September 2022 .

• Candidates who are successful in this internal competition will then be asked to prepare and submit their outline applications to the British Academy in early 2023.

Indicative deadlines from the British Academy's 2022/23 are:

• Deadline for submission to faculty: 12 August 2022

• RSO ranking and submission period: 5 September 2022

• Result of first stage announcement: early-January 2023

• Second stage submission process: mid-January 2023 - late-February 2023

• Results published: June 2023

Eligibility

• Applicants must be either a UK/EEA national or have completed a doctorate at a UK university. If an applicant does not meet the prior categories, they may be accepted if they can demonstrate ‘strong prior association’ with the UK academic community.
• Applicants must be within three years of the award of a doctorate (i.e. with a viva between 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2023). Exemptions from this criterion may be granted for extenuating circumstances.
• Those with a permanent academic post are ineligible to apply.
• Applicants may apply only once in the three years they are eligible. Previously unsuccessful applicants will be able to submit another application only if specifically invited to do so by the British Academy.

Funding

Awards are typically for three years and cover 80% of salary costs, directly allocated, and indirect costs under full Economic Costing. Research expenses are covered at 100% at up to a maximum of £6,000 over the three years (equivalent to £2,000pa).

All queries regarding submitted applications and internal selection procedure should be sent to administrator@ames.cam.ac.uk.

Specific guidance for the 2022/23 call will be available from mid-August on the British Academy website. However, the current information from 2021/22 will likely remain the same.

ESRC New Investigator Grants

The ESRC have announced their New Investigators scheme. The call is open to high-quality candidates who have a maximum of four years’ postdoctoral experience. Proposals are welcome in any topic which falls within ESRC’s remit, including projects at the “interface with the wider sciences”, provided that social sciences accounts for at least 50% of the proposed research. The ESRC will award grants of between £100-300K at fEC, though as with other Research Council grants they will cover 80% of this cost. Awards will be for up to five years, though they will be typically three years in duration, with a special case being made for the need for five years’ worth of funding. For full details please see the call specification.

This call has a rolling deadline, and applications will be reviewed 3 times / year: in ESRC Panel meetings in March, July and November each year. Roughly 35 awards will be made per year.

Internal Selection process:

The ESRC expect the University to run an internal selection process to ensure that we submit only bids from outstanding individuals with the potential to become the research leaders of the future. The University can submit only a limited number of applications. To meet these requirements, this call will be overseen by a cross-school Committee, as decided by University’s Research Policy Committee: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/cam-only/committee/rpc/minutes/20161124.pdf

There will be 3 internal calls every year, ahead of the panel meetings in November, March and July. Only applicants whose proposals have been approved and selected through the internal selection process will be allowed to proceed with submission of their applications to ESRC.

The applicants who wish to submit an application ahead of the ESRC November 2020 Panel deadline, are required to submit to ESRCNewInv@admin.cam.ac.uk by Monday, 11^thMarch 2020 (17:00): 

If you have any questions, then please write to ESRCNewInv@admin.cam.ac.uk