1. Alina Schilling EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow School of Maths & Physics a.schilling@qub.ac.uk

2.  Early Career or Postdoctoral Research Fellowships ◦ 3 years awards for researchers who have recently completed a PhD to establish an independent research career  Senior or Career Advanced Research Fellowships ◦ 5 years of funding for talented researchers who have 3-10 years of postdoctoral experience  Leadership Research Fellowships ◦ 5 years of funding for researchers with the most potential to develop into the UK’s future research leaders  Innovation Research Fellowships ◦ Allow researchers to test the economic and/or scientific feasibility of a project for commercialisation  Visiting Research Fellowships ◦ short time visiting another institution (usually up to 6 months)  Research Fellowships for special working patterns ◦ 4 years support of excellent early-career scientists, who require a flexible working pattern

3.  Availability – i.e., time-dependent  Suitability – i.e., full time/part time  Requirements – i.e., eligibility for EU citizens  Benefits – i.e., funds for additional staff  Duration – i.e., 5 years  Degree of competition ◦ i.e., 470 applications/23 fellowships for EPSRC  Amount of research money offered ◦ i.e., fellow/fellow + additional staff  Location – i.e., labs space and equipment  Prestige – i.e., Royal Society/Research Council  Amount of paper work  Personal choice ...

4.  Royal Society Fellowships (www.rcuk.ac.uk)www.rcuk.ac.uk  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) fellowships (www.epsrc.ac.uk)www.epsrc.ac.uk  Leverhulme fellowships ( www.leverhulme.ac.uk) www.leverhulme.ac.uk  Marie-Curie fellowships (cordis.europa.eu/improving/fellow ships/home.htm)cordis.europa.eu/improving/fellow ships/home.htm  L’Oreal fellowships (www.womeninscience.co.uk/)www.womeninscience.co.uk/

5.  University Royal Society Fellowship ◦ Considered the most prestigious ◦ PI only ◦ 5 years ◦ about 10k/year + salary  Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship ◦ Offers flexibility (part time or full time or both) ◦ PI only ◦ 4 years ◦ Same 10 k/year + salary

6.  Career Acceleration Fellowship ◦ 5 years ◦ Flexibility to change from full time to part time and back ◦ Funds for more staff (i.e., postdoc, technical staff) ◦ Funds for buying equipment ◦ Longer and more difficult application process

7.  Build up a strong CV and publication list  Get informed about available fellowships and their deadlines  Decide which fellowship is better for you ◦ Maximise your time by applying to only few fellowships rather than many of them (quite much time consuming)  Ask for help when writing up your proposal ◦ Your supervisor or experienced PIs  Choose proper referees (preferably international) ◦ Nobel laureates if possible or very important people who can write letters of support stating that you are the best person for that specific fellowship  Have proposal ready at least 10 days before the submission deadline ◦ Some applications are not considered submitted without the referees letters ◦ Our staff in the Research Office are very prompt and helpful

8.  Be familiar with the application process ◦ Read the guide notes for that specific fellowship ◦ Know dates (i.e., deadline, dates for the next step in application process, answer to referees, interview...)  Contact the Research Office ◦ You will need full economic costs to fill out ◦ proposal submission is a team work with the Research Office  Prepare for writing a detailed proposal ◦ First stage in application might be a short (2 pages) proposal ◦ Second stage might be a full proposal submission (around 20 pages)  Consider additional letters of support from international collaborators  Get information about the area of research of panel members should you be interviewed  Be ready to describe your proposed research in lay terms or in very short time (1 min)