Early Career Fellowship

The Early Career Fellowship Scheme supports completing Warwick doctoral candidates in the transition phase between their doctoral and independent postdoctoral research careers. Applications are welcomed twice per year.

Apply for this scheme

Scheme Objectives

The Early Career Fellowship supports completing Warwick PhD students who wish to establish themselves in an academic career. Early Career Fellows receive a bursary, training to develop their academic leadership skills and support to produce career enhancing outputs from their thesis, such as:

• Papers, book proposals, conference presentations and other academic publications
• Fellowship and other applications to external funders in order to develop the fellow's independent research
• A workshop or other event to showcase the Fellow's research to the wider academic community and support the development of new networks and collaborations
• Impact & Engagement activities to take the research to a wider audience

The scheme is not about supporting fellows to undertake new research activity, rather it aims to help fellows extract the maximum value from the existing research in their thesis. Applications which focus on new research will not be successful.

Funding

The fellowship will award a stipend to cover half of the fellows time - the other 50% of their time is free to undertake other work and many of our ECFs have other part-time positions at the university such as Teaching Fellow & Research Assistant. The stipend is based on the UKRI Research Council PhD studentship so funding continues at 50% of the PhD stipend you have been receiving.

The fellowship is funded across three terms (including holidays) to allow fellows to participate in the Accolade training programme and there are two cohorts per year;

• Cohort 1 - October-July (Terms 1,2 &3)
• Cohort 2 - May - March (Terms 3, 1 & 2)

The award of the third term is provisional and fellows must demonstrate suitable progress and engagement with the fellowship at the progress meeting in their second term to be awarded this final tranche of funding.

In addition, Fellows receive £150 to support research related activities (such as conference attendance) and can apply for up to £350 to support a workshop or other research dissemination activity

The Fellow will also have access to the IAS facilities (including a hot desking office, seminar room, meeting room and common room), as well other University facilities such as the library and IT services, for the duration of the Fellowship. 

Training and Support

All Early Career fellows participate in the Accolade Training Programme . This bespoke training allows fellows to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective academic leader. It covers personal development, helping fellows to understand themselves and how they interact with others, as well as sector specific skills (e.g. grant writing, publication and creating impact outside academia) and broader transferable skills such as communicating with different audiences.

The IAS publishes a journal, Exchanges, which attracts innovative research articles from emerging domain experts and early career researchers. It provides a mechanism not only to publish new independent ideas, but also to enhance your CV and gain experience of academic publishing as a member of the Editorial Board.

In addition fellows can get one-to-one support when writing grant and fellowship proposals and administrative support for the organisation of workshops and other events.

The IAS Community

The IAS is an interdisciplinary research centre which brings together researchers from all disciplines and from around the world. Our ECFs are an integral part of this community and the fellowship gives you an opportunity to interact with researchers from other subjects and work with them to give your research a new interdisciplinary angle.

As an ECF you will join our community of postdoctoral researchers including our WIRL-COFUND and EUTOPIA-SIF fellows, previous ECF cohorts and IAS Associate Fellows. In addition the IAS hosts academics from around the world through our visiting fellows programmes. As an IAS Early Career Fellow you will have the opportunity to interact with our visitors and learn about academia in outside the UK and build networks and collaborations.

Our postdoctoral fellows all participate in the weekly IAS research seminars, which challenge you to communicate your research to an interdisciplinary audience, and will also be part of smaller working groups which form around particular subject areas.

Apply for the Early Career Fellowship

Eligibility

Candidates must apply only to the round(s) for which they are eligible. In 2023-24 the two call deadlines are:

• Midday 1 December 2024: for candidates who will submit their thesis for examination between 1 October 2023 and 30 April 2024, with Fellowships commencing May 2025.
• Midday 27 April 2024: for candidates who will submit their thesis for examination between 1 May and 30 September 2024, with Fellowships commencing October 2024.

Review Criteria

Applications will be considered by a panel of Warwick academic staff, including the IAS Director. 

Academic Excellence - taking into account: 

• Previous publication record, if any, arising from the doctoral research 
• Conference papers, if any, based on the doctoral research 
• Grants and fellowships awarded during postgraduate career 
• Evidence of engagement with research community beyond immediate field 
• Letters of reference 

Quality of Proposed Activities - as detailed in project statement, taking into account: 

• Intellectual ambition and scope of proposed activities 
• Ability of proposed programme to lead to the advancement the candidate’s postdoctoral research career 
• Evidence of ongoing proactivity and clarity of objectives to achieve research goals. 
• Feasibility (ability to accomplish stated goals within the Fellowship period). 
• That this is not a vehicle for funding new research or for completing PhD investigations 

Scope for Interdisciplinary engagement – taking into account: 

• The interdisciplinary direction of the proposed work 
• Applicant’s ability and willingness to situate their future research within the broader interdisciplinary research framework of the IAS.

Application Guidelines

All application, CV and reference must be saved in the following format:

(Application form_FULL NAME / CV_ FULL NAME / Reference_FULL NAME ) 

Application Procedure

From the Applicant

• A completed online Equal Opportunities survey
• Download the Application form and complete it fully, making sure it has been signed by Head of Department and Departmental Administrator

• Complete the Microsoft form below and upload the your Application form and CV (maximum 2 single-spaced, single sides of A4)

From each of the two Referees:

• Using the same Apply here button below upload a Letter of Reference (which aim to address the candidate’s achievements to date and suitability for the fellowship. This should reference any academic achievements as well as any engagement beyond their immediate specialism, contributions to the department (e.g teaching, seminars, support with events, committees etc).
• PLEASE NOTE: External references can be emailed at ECR@warwick.ac.uk

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application and academic references reach the IAS by the deadline. Late or incomplete applications submitted will not be considered.