Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and that the Fellowships should lead to a more permanent academic position. Around 140 Fellowships are awarded annually.

The University sets a limit on the number of applications that each school is allowed to submit and for this reason the School needs time to assess applications and select suitable candidates on the basis of a 2-page project proposal and abbreviated CV (max 2 pages) from each candidate, plus a short statement of support from their mentor (see point 2 below). If you are interested in applying for this scheme, please contact the SPS Research Office ssps.research@ed.ac.uk as soon as possible to register your interest.

Fellowships are tenable for three years on a full-time basis. The Trust will support requests to hold the award part-time over a proportionately longer period for health related reasons, disability or childcare commitments.

More information on the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Fellowships website

Leverhulme have announced the 2024/25 dates, which are shown below. However, to provide sufficient time for candidate selection and application development time, the School deadline for submitting an up-to-date two page CV and two page project summary plus mentor support statement will be Thursday 14th November 2024, with follow-on dates detailed below:

University of Edinburgh Research Office (ERO) is organising an online info session about the ECF scheme on Wednesday 6h November at 2.00pm (GMT), candidates, potential mentors, professional services staff etc can register to attend at https://research-office.ed.ac.uk/our-research-community/research-projects-growing-your-idea/identify-funding/research-fellowships-leverhulme-ECF

SSPS application pathway 2024/25:

1. Mentor identification

SPS requires a mentor (SPS core staff) for all early-career fellowships. In order to progress your proposal, you must first identify, contact and have an agreed mentor for your proposed project application. We strongly encourage all applicants to contact and secure the agreement of a prospective mentor in SPS as soon as possible, and work closely with them in developing their application.

2. Notification of expression of interest to School

Please email ssps.research@ed.ac.uk with your intention to apply as soon as possible.

3. Submission to School Panel assessment and selection process

If you wish to apply for this scheme then you must send the following documents to ssps.research@ed.ac.uk by 14th November 2024:

a summary project proposal (max. 2 pages, including bibliography);
an abbreviated CV (max. 2 pages);
and a brief mentor support statement (max. 1 page).

All above should be in Arial or Calibri font minimum size 11. The project must also have Head of Subject Area approval. Your mentor will help to obtain this before you submit your documents to the School.

4. Development and submission of application

Decisions made by the School will be communicated by early January 2025. All applicants will be provided with feedback. Those who are progressing to full application stage will be given support on how to develop and strengthen their applications and will continue to work with the Research Office to submission.

1st Jan 2025- scheme opens on Leverhulme Trust grant application portal.
6th February 2025 - deadline for full draft applications in Leverhulme Trust grant online system. At this point a School review of the full application will be conducted and feedback given to strengthen final applications.
N.B. While the focus of feedback will be on strengthening proposals, the School may advise against submitting particular proposals at this point, if problems present with quality/design or feasibility and for which solutions cannot be developed before the deadline.
20th February 2025 - Deadline for application submission to the funder by the University.
23rd May 2025 - Leverhulme Trust contacts applicants with outcome of their application.

Points to note

We interpret the Leverhulme Trust’s reference to the need for a ‘proven track record of research' to mean that the School requires applicants to have at least two peer-reviewed academic publications which are deemed of high quality, for which they had a leading role. If you would like further guidance on whether your CV and publication track record is suitable for this scheme, please speak to your mentor in the first instance and/or your subject area research convener.

Please email the Research Office if you have any unresolved queries: ssps.research@ed.ac.uk. The School Research Office can provide additional information and guidance on the scheme. Please get in touch if you are considering applying and have any questions.

Eligibility

Applicants must be supported by a UK host institution.
Applicants must have a PhD and have submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce not more than 4 years prior to the scheme closing date. This year, meaning that only candidates who formally submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination after 20th February 2021 will be eligible, and you must have submitted your doctoral thesis for viva voce examination by 4pm on the closing date of 20th February 2025. Extensions for extenuating circumstances (illness, maternity leave, care-giving duties, etc) are considered.
Applicants must either hold a degree from a UK higher institution at time of taking up the fellowship or hold an academic position in the UK (fixed term lectureship or short-term fellowship) at the time of the application deadline, which commenced no less than 4 months prior to the closing date.
Candidates of any nationality can apply but must be resident in the UK for the fellowship duration.
Those with permanent academic posts are not eligible to apply.
Candidates who have been, or are, currently a Principal Investigator on a three-year postdoctoral research project, or have held a comparable three-year postdoctoral position to pursue their own research, are not eligible to apply.