Alina Schilling
EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow
School of Maths & Physics
a.schilling@qub.ac.uk
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Early Career or Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
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Senior or Career Advanced Research Fellowships
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Leadership Research Fellowships
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Innovation Research Fellowships
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Visiting Research Fellowships
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Research Fellowships for special working patterns
◦ 3 years awards for researchers who have recently
completed a PhD to establish an independent research
career
◦ 5 years of funding for talented researchers who have 3-10
years of postdoctoral experience
◦ 5 years of funding for researchers with the most potential
to develop into the UK’s future research leaders
◦ Allow researchers to test the economic and/or scientific
feasibility of a project for commercialisation
◦ short time visiting another institution (usually up to 6
months)
◦ 4 years support of excellent early-career scientists, who
require a flexible working pattern
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Availability – i.e., time-dependent
Suitability – i.e., full time/part time
Requirements – i.e., eligibility for EU citizens
Benefits – i.e., funds for additional staff
Duration – i.e., 5 years
Degree of competition
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Amount of research money offered
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◦ i.e., 470 applications/23 fellowships for EPSRC
◦ i.e., fellow/fellow + additional staff
Location – i.e., labs space and equipment
Prestige – i.e., Royal Society/Research Council
Amount of paper work
Personal choice
...
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Royal Society Fellowships
(www.rcuk.ac.uk)
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) fellowships
(www.epsrc.ac.uk)
Leverhulme fellowships
(www.leverhulme.ac.uk)
Marie-Curie fellowships
(cordis.europa.eu/improving/fellow
ships/home.htm)
L’Oreal fellowships
(www.womeninscience.co.uk/)
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University Royal Society
Fellowship
◦ Considered the most
prestigious
◦ PI only
◦ 5 years
◦ about 10k/year + salary
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Dorothy Hodgkin
Fellowship
◦ Offers flexibility (part time or
full time or both)
◦ PI only
◦ 4 years
◦ Same 10 k/year + salary
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Career Acceleration
Fellowship
◦ 5 years
◦ Flexibility to change
from full time to part
time and back
◦ Funds for more staff
(i.e., postdoc,
technical staff)
◦ Funds for buying
equipment
◦ Longer and more
difficult application
process
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Build up a strong CV and publication list
Get informed about available fellowships and
their deadlines
Decide which fellowship is better for you
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Ask for help when writing up your proposal
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Choose proper referees (preferably international)
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Have proposal ready at least 10 days before the
submission deadline
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◦ Maximise your time by applying to only few fellowships
rather than many of them (quite much time consuming)
◦ Your supervisor or experienced PIs
◦ Nobel laureates if possible or very important people who
can write letters of support stating that you are the best
person for that specific fellowship
◦ Some applications are not considered submitted without
the referees letters
◦ Our staff in the Research Office are very prompt and
helpful
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Be familiar with the application process
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Contact the Research Office
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Prepare for writing a detailed proposal
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◦ Read the guide notes for that specific fellowship
◦ Know dates (i.e., deadline, dates for the next step in
application process, answer to referees, interview...)
◦ You will need full economic costs to fill out
◦ proposal submission is a team work with the Research
Office
◦ First stage in application might be a short (2 pages)
proposal
◦ Second stage might be a full proposal submission (around
20 pages)
Consider additional letters of support from
international collaborators
Get information about the area of research of panel
members should you be interviewed
Be ready to describe your proposed research in lay
terms or in very short time (1 min)