Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowship scheme

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowship scheme 2023.

The Funding Opportunity

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships scheme supports 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.

Full details of this opportunity are available on the Leverhulme Trust website.

Applicants should also refer to the Leverhulme Trust’s approach to grant-making.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this call the applicant must have:

• Submitted their PhD for viva voce after 23 February 2019/can provide evidence of a career break to justify their eligibility/submitted between 23 February 2018 and 23 February 2019 and can evidence that their work has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; OR the applicant will have submitted their PhD for viva voce by 31 January 2023.
• A degree from a UK institution; does not have a UK degree but holds a fixed term position which commenced before October 2022; or does not have a UK degree but has been in continuous UK academic employment for more than four months prior to the funder deadline on 23 February 2023.
• Moved institutions in the course of their academic career (e.g. between their undergraduate university and proposed host institution).
• Not previously been a PI on a 3-year project or held a comparable 3-year post-doctoral position to pursue their own research.
• Not yet held a full-time permanent academic post in a UK university or comparable UK institution.

Value and duration

Fellowships are tenable for 3 years on a full-time basis. The Trust will contribute 50% of each Fellow's total salary costs up to a maximum of £26K per year. The balance is to be paid by the host institution.

Internal Expression of Interest Stage

• Applicant identifies a mentor and contacts their proposed mentor to discuss their potential application. The mentor should be the applicant’s first point of contact throughout the EoI process.
• Once the applicant has an agreed mentor they should notify the Head of Department (HoD) of their intent to apply.
• The applicant completes an Internal Expression of Interest (EoI) form and sends this and a 2-page academic CV by email to the HoD by 12 noon on 3 October 2022. Please note, the EoI form and CV should be emailed in PDF format.
• The department selects and ranks up to TWO candidates to put forward to the faculty competition and notifies the unsuccessful candidates. The HoD emails the successful applicants’ CV and completed EoI form to rso-submissions@lancaster.ac.uk by 00pm on Monday 31 October 2022.

Application Timetable

Date	Details
5 September 2022	Internal Expression of Interest opens.
3 October 2022	Internal Expression of Interest closes. Applications submitted directly to HoD.
31 October 2022	Department selection. TWO ranked candidates put forward to Faculty competition. Unsuccessful candidates notified by HoD.
1 November 2022	RSO eligibility checks. Ineligible applicants and their HoDs notified by RSO.
w/c 5 December 2022	ADR selection panel meets. Selected candidates are notified and work on their application with RSO and their mentor in preparation for the deadline. Unsuccessful candidates are notified by the ADR (in collaboration with RSO).
1 January 2023	Leverhulme online application form opens.
17 February 2023	HoD submits supporting statements via the Leverhulme application portal no later than the date shown.
20 February 2023	Initial submission via the Leverhulme portal to allow time for final University approval.
23 February 2023	Leverhulme Trust deadline at 4pm.

Any queries about this scheme should be directed to z.bolton@lancaster.ac.uk, a.k.clifton@lancaster.ac.uk or a.r.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk.