A postdoctoral fellowship: your next career move?

Author: Dr Joanna Young

Are you an early career researcher thinking about pursuing a career in academia? Then you may want to consider applying for a postdoctoral research fellowship as your next career move. Fellowships enable you to take that next step towards independence and they are designed to help early career researchers transition to becoming a research group leader.

What is a fellowship?

A fellowship is a term limited research position that provides funding and support with the guidance of a sponsor/ mentor. Several different types of fellowships exist and they have different application requirements, so it is worth exploring several of them to find out which ones are best suited to you and your circumstances. During a fellowship you will have the opportunity to complete a research project that you proposed, to take advantage of further training, to learn from researchers you have not worked with before, to build your network of contacts and publish your work. It is seen as a step to independence, while also giving you the chance to further develop your skills and experience before launching your own research group.

Why apply for a fellowship?

1)  It gives you independence! You can propose your own project and say where you want to do it and who you want to work with.

2) You have the chance to fully focus on your research project for the duration of the fellowship.

3) You have access to training, support and mentoring to help you boost your career.

4) If you apply for and successfully obtain a fellowship as an early career researcher, you are demonstrating that you can propose an original research project and win funding for it.  Therefore, you are proving that you can navigate the funding process successfully at the postdoctoral level: that will be an advantage when you apply for permanent research positions in future. 

How to apply

Applying for a fellowship takes a considerable amount of time, preparation and perseverance. However, if you are successful then it can give you a real competitive advantage when you come to apply for permanent academic positions. There are now a several different fellowships available for early career postdocs (and some for final year PhD students) and we have included a short list of five upcoming UK opportunities in the table below that might be of interest to researchers at this stage.

 It is important to remember that the fellowship application process is a competition: there are many more applicants than there are available positions and the standard is high, with only approximately 20% of applications being funded. It is therefore crucial that you carefully craft your application to meet the requirements of the funding organisation, that you have an original project proposal, that you explain how the fellowship will further your career and research vision and why the place you are going to do it is ideal. In short, make sure you emphasise the PROJECT, PERSON and PLACE.

What fellowships are you eligible for?

There are many more fellowships available and they all have different eligibility requirements and expectations of applicants. Therefore, the eligibility parameters for a particular fellowship scheme may mean that it is only open to researchers from within a specific career stage (e.g. within 3 years of your PhD), a certain subject area or to those who can meet certain international mobility requirements.

If you are interested in applying for a postdoctoral fellowship then we recommend that you explore the range of available fellowships and select the ones that are most relevant to you. For a more comprehensive list of fellowships, you may wish to explore Research Professional database, which contains several opportunities.

Our self-paced Electv Training online course, Research funding: applying for postdoctoral fellowships is designed for early career researchers who are interested in finding our more about the fellowship application process and the course is available all year round. The course is open to all and includes further information on the application process, expectations of applicants, details from the instructor’s own experience of obtaining a fellowship and a more detailed list of upcoming fellowship opportunities and deadlines. If you have any questions about the course then please email us at enquiries@electv.net