Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships

Offering fifty per cent match-funding for the salary costs of an academic appointment over three years, the scheme is open to applicants who have a track record of research, but who have not yet held an established academic appointment. Approximately 80 Fellowships will be available in 2014. Fellowships can be held at universities or at other institutions of higher education in the UK.

Deadline: 6 March 2014 (new round opens on 2nd Jan 2014)

Value:  50% of each Fellow's total salary costs up to a maximum of £23,000 per annum, the balance to be paid by the host institution. Each Fellow may request annual research expenses of up to £6,000 to further his or her research activities.


Duration: Normally three years on a full-time basis, but requests to hold the award part-time over a proportionately longer period will be considered if this is appropriate for the nature of the research proposed and the career development of the individual. Fellowships will commence between the beginning of the 2014/2015 academic year and 1 May 2015.

Eligibility: 
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. Those in receipt of a stipendiary Fellowship may not hold this at the same time as an Early Career Fellowship.

All candidates must hold a doctorate or have equivalent research experience by the time they take up the Fellowship. Those who are or have been registered for a doctorate at any time may apply only if they have submitted their doctoral thesis by the closing date of 4pm on 6 March 2014, and confirmation of this is required as part of the application procedure. 

Applications are invited from those with a doctorate who had their doctoral viva not more than five years from the application closing date. 

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). The Research Awards Advisory Committee believes that the development of an academic career is best served by gaining experience at different institutions. 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.

The matching funding contributed by the host institution must be drawn from generally available funds and must not be associated with any other grants received by the host institution. The host department must secure the matching funding for the applicant before the closing date. Applications which do not meet these conditions are ineligible and will be rejected.

Application procedure: 
Apply online at: 

To submit an application: complete all sections of the form, select Validate to confirm that you have completed the mandatory fields correctly. If there are no errors you can then save and close the application and select the Submit button to submit the application for the two forms of institutional approval. Once the application is submitted it will not be possible for you to edit this unless your head of department or the institutional approver reject it. However, you will be able to view it. 

Applications must be approved by (i) your head of department and (ii) an administrative officer on behalf of the institution, in that order. It is strongly recommended that you ensure that your host institution is aware of the approval process well in advance of you submitting your application for institutional approval. It is your responsibility to complete your application in time for the host institution to process it. The Trust strongly recommends that you submit your application for institutional approval at least five working days before the closing date of 4pm on 6 March 2014. 

You need 3 referees. 

A detailed explanation of the application form ('Guide for Applicants') can be downloaded here. Apart from personal/educational details, these are the main features of the form: 

Title of research proposal: No more than 80 characters including spaces.
Fields of study: Select the fields of study which most closely reflect the area of research of the current application.
Abstract: This account should be given in non-technical terms so as to be easily comprehensible to a non-expert.
Details of current and past research: Give details of your current and past research experience. If this is too extensive to be summarised in 250 words focus on the research most relevant to the current application.
Detailed statement of proposed research: This should include aims, objectives, methodology and outcome (e.g. publication plans). It should enable the Committee and your referees to form an estimate of the scope and importance of your proposal. The methodology should be clear and explicit, comprehensible to a non-expert. Include any bibliographic references in full, including page numbers where relevant. This statement and the bibliographic references may not exceed two sides of A4. To avoid validation problems we recommend that you use Arial font size 11. Please add your name at the top of the first page.
Major publications: Please list your publications (maximum one side of A4) under three main headings; ‘In preparation’, ‘Submitted’ and ‘Published’, as appropriate. Please reference publications in full (i.e. author/s, journal titles, and page numbers) and if publications are in press give a word count for each. If a full list of your publications exceeds one page then include only the publications most relevant to the current application. Please add your name at the top of the page.

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