Early Career Fellowship

The Early Career Fellowship supports completing Warwick PhD students who wish to establish themselves in a research 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, although a small amount of research that will develop new interdisciplinary research ideas and lay the foundation for a future funding application are permitted.

Apply for this scheme

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. This will be assessed at a progress meeting in their second term.

Fellows will also receive £600 to support fellowship related activities, such as conference attendance, organising a workshop, other research dissemination activity or limited research activity that would support an application for an externally funded fellowship.

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.

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 researchers including our 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 and 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 IAS research seminars, which will challenge you to communicate your research to an interdisciplinary audience as well as allow you to develop new research ideas informed by other disciplines.

Eligibility

Candidates must apply only to the round(s) for which they are eligible. In 2024-25 the two call deadlines are:

• 01 December 2025: for candidates who will submit their thesis for examination between 1 October 2025 and 30 April 2026, with Fellowships commencing May 2026.
• Midday 9th May 2025 (UPDATE: Deadline extended) : for candidates who will submit their thesis for examination between 1 May and 30 September 2025, with Fellowships commencing October 2025.

(Please note: You may apply for more than one round, as long as your thesis submission date falls in the eligibility widow)

Review Criteria

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

Academic Track Record - taking into account: 

• Previous publication record, if any, arising from the doctoral research as well as any other research related outputs and activities
• Conference papers, if any, based on the doctoral research 

• Grants, fellowships & prizes awarded during postgraduate career 
• Any evidence of interdisciplinary engagement with a research community beyond the applicant's immediate field of study
• Letters of reference 

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

• Planned academic outputs from the fellowship (e.g publications, conference presentations, fellowship applications)
• Other activities that will allow the fellow to engage with the wider research community in order to network and develop their future research & career plans (e.g workshop organisation, research visits)
• The impact of the proposed activities on the postdoctoral career development of the applicants

• How the fellow would use the available budget to support these activities and the aims of the fellowship
• Feasibility (ability to accomplish stated goals within the Fellowship period

Scope for Interdisciplinary engagement – taking into account: 

• Any interdisciplinarity in the applicant's previous research
• How the applicant will use the fellowship to develop interdisciplinarity in the future direction of their research

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 formLink opens in a new window and complete it fully, making sure it has been signed by Head of Department and Departmental Administrator
• Complete the Microsoft form below and upload your Application form and CV (maximum 2 single-spaced, single sides of A4)

From each of the two Referees:

• Upload a Letter of Reference below (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).
• 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.

APPLY HERE