Calls and Opportunities

Please find below a updated list of research calls and funding opportunities.

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships 2025

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from outstanding early career researchers seeking support for their application to the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowship scheme 2025. We particularly welcome applicants who seek to advance scholarly understandings in ways that exceed a single field or discipline, in line with our longstanding institutional commitments to interdisciplinarity.

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.

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 by 4pm on 20 February 2025; OR submitted prior to 20 February 2021 and can provide evidence of a career break to justify their eligibility if prior to that date.
A degree from a UK institution; or does not have a UK degree but holds a fixed-term position which commenced before October 2024; 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.
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.

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.
The applicant completes the expression of interest via the following online Microsoft form: Lancaster University Leverhulme ECF EoI 2025 and sends relevant attachments to s.greenbank@lancaster.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday 22nd November 2024.
The panel selects candidates to put forward and notifies all successful and unsuccessful candidates.

Application Timetable

Date	Details
2 September 2024	Internal Expression of Interest opens.
22 November 2024 at 5pm	Internal Expression of Interest closes.
25 - 29 November 2024	RSO eligibility checks. Ineligible applicants notified by RSO.
w/c 2 December 2024	Selection panel meets. Selected candidates, their mentors and HoDs will be notified. Candidates should work on their application with RSO in preparation for the deadline. HoDs to meet with candidates to negotiate salary costs. Unsuccessful candidates will be notified.
1 January 2025	Leverhulme online application form opens.
20 January 2025	Candidate to submit their application to the FASS Peer Review College to allow sufficient time for review and comments.
14 February 2025	HoD submits supporting statements via the Leverhulme application portal no later than the date shown.
18 February 2025	Initial submission via the Leverhulme portal to allow time for final University approval.
20 February 2025	Leverhulme Trust deadline at 4pm.

Any queries about this scheme should be directed to s.greenbank@lancaster.ac.uk.

Joy Welch Post-Doctoral grants fund

Scope

The Lancaster University Joy Welch Grants Fund provides an annual opportunity for Lancaster's post-doctoral [or equivalent experience] Academic or Research staff at any career stage to secure funding for post-doctoral research. Research across all discipline areas is open to consideration. The total budget for the 2024/25 call is £100,000 and a minimum of 12 awards will be made.

Lancaster University researchers are invited to apply for small grants which can run for up to 12 months in duration.

Opening date: Monday 6th January 2025

Closing date: Friday 28th February 2025 at 5 pm

Joy Welch application form 2024-25

Joy Welch award report 22-23

Joy Welch award report 23-24

Eligibility

Any member of Lancaster University’s [post-doctoral] Academic or Research staff engaged in a contract that extends beyond the lifetime of the proposed project, is eligible to apply.

Only one Joy Welch Grant may be applied for by any one person in each academic year.

Criteria

This call is open to all disciplines and projects must start between 1st April 2025 and 31st March 2026 and may run for up to a maximum of 12 months thereafter.

Funds will be awarded for directly incurred costs only e.g. travel, subsistence, small equipment (less than £10k), staff support, consultancy fees, and sub-contracting fees. Investigator salaries are not eligible for funding.

The Head of Department must provide a statement to confirm the applicant will be supported by the department (this is to be inserted into the JW funding application form).

Only applications submitted on the Joy Welch Post-Doctoral application form will be accepted.

An internal panel of four comprising cross-faculty academic representatives will review all applications and make award decisions.

The outcome will be communicated by email to the address on the application form by 31st March 2025. Feedback for unsuccessful applicants will not be provided.

No one project may apply for funding for more than three consecutive years, whether successful or not.

Proposals do not need to be costed and approved in ACP before submission, but applicants may seek advice on cost eligibility from Research Services - please contact rso-submissions@lancaster.ac.uk.

Note: Grantees of this internal scheme cannot use an award to count towards probationary targets or in a case for promotion.

Conditions of Award

Funding will only be released following ethical approval.
Details of successful awards will be published on the Lancaster University internet pages
Funding is available to staff only while they remain in the employ of Lancaster University.
All items of small equipment purchased will remain the property of Lancaster University, including laptops or other IT equipment.
The Associate Director of Research Services must approve any proposed changes to the research or planned expenditure.
Joy Welch Post-Doctoral Grant awards cannot be used to count towards probationary targets or used for a promotion case.
Any unspent funds at the end of the award will be returned to the Fund.
The contribution made by the Joy Welch Post-Doctoral Grant should be acknowledged in any future publications arising from this grant.
Grantees will be required to provide a one-page final report within one month of their grant end date with details of any project outcomes, e.g. publications, bids submitted, and further funding awarded.

Existing Research Funding

UKRI 27/3 'No-cost' extension requests to grants impacted by coronavirus will be allowed.
Wellcome offering more flexibility and support for staff who are ill/isolating/clinical/have caring responsibilities, in line with their host organisation policies

Researchers on Grants

Walport to UCU letter 26/3 notes it highlights “the needs and urgency of the workforce” and calls for help identifying the most pressing issues. UCU's letter called for UKG to extend current research grants and guarantee the incomes of fixed-term researchers at their current level. UCU propose:

eg redeploy any unspent direct costs such as on travel, conferences and workshops to extend the researcher’s fixed-term contracts during this current period.