Visiting Professorships in the United Kingdom

For UK institutions to invite an eminent senior professor from overseas, to bring genuinely novel expertise and enhance the skills and knowledge of academic staff and students in an underrepresented area in the UK. Priority will be given to new or recent collaborations and visits with a variety of activities beyond research.

Value

Applications are invited for a minimum of £10,000 and a maximum of £150,000. 

Duration

A Visiting Professorship must last at least 3 months. Grants between 3 and 6 months must be completed in one visit. Grants between 6 and 12 months can be spread over two or more visits, with 12 months being the maximum duration for a visit.

Before beginning your application, please read the information below or download it as a PDF Guidance for Applicants.

Eligibility

Applications must be made by a member of academic staff, based in a UK university with research degree awarding powers, who will be responsible for coordinating the visit. Some specialist arts institutions are permitted to apply for Visiting Professorships.

The host academic’s employing institution must also agree to administer the grant, if awarded, and to provide appropriate facilities for the Visiting Professor.

Visitors who have previously held a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship can only apply if at least 7 years have elapsed since the last one.

The over-riding criteria for selection are:

• the academic standing and achievements of the visitors in terms of their research and/or teaching
• their potential for making a substantial contribution to skills in the host institution
• the specific and systematic nature of the proposed programme while in the UK

In special circumstances, the Trust Board is prepared to consider candidates who do not hold a university post. 

Collaborative research alone will not be a sufficient justification for a grant. The emphasis should be on the diffusion of skills and expertise. Priority will be given to new or recent collaborative ventures. 

Where a visit builds on an existing collaboration, the host should explain what the visit(s) will achieve over and above past outcomes. 

It is the intention that the visitor will provide a degree of expertise that is not otherwise available within the UK research base. 

Visiting Professors will be expected to offer a short course of "Leverhulme Lectures” to mark their residence in a UK institution.

The Trust will not fund applications for research of which advocacy forms an explicit component.

The Trust does not support research which is aimed principally at an immediate commercial application.

The Trust will not fund applications in which the balance between assembling a data bank or database and the related subsequent research is heavily inclined to the former.

Eligible fields of study

Applications will be considered in all subject areas except:

• studies of disease, illness and disabilities in humans and animals
• research that is intended to inform clinical practice or the development of medical applications

The Trusts always excludes these areas because substantial funding is available from other sources for applied medical research and the Trust’s priority is to support investigations of a fundamental nature.