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The guidance on this webpage is also available to download as a pdf file:
- Eligibility criteria
- Funding availability
- Intellectual property (IP)
- Application timeline
- Important note for external applicants
- Information for UCL department staff
- How to apply
- Application document templates to download
- Monitoring Data collection
- Other information required for online submission
- Online forms
A webinar for potential applicants to 2020/21 round 1 was held in May 2020. Due to circumstances beyond our control it has not been possible to include video of the webinar on this website as we had intended. However, the slides used in the webinar can be viewed on slideshare.
2. Eligibility criteria
2.1 Funding source:
Any student who received EPSRC funding support during their doctoral study at a UK institution is eligible to apply. This includes: CDT (both CDT grant funded and Incorporated), DTP, DTP-CASE, and I-CASE. Those funded by other Research Councils or other funders are NOT eligible (this includes students aligned to EPSRC CDTs but funded from other Research Councils or other funders). Their funded studentship must have ended no earlier than 31 December 2022.
2.2 Career stage:
Applicants must have submitted their doctoral thesis for examination before the start date (22 April 2024) and no earlier than 31 December 2022. Their funded studentship must have ended no earlier than 31 December 2022. The award requires the Fellow to have submitted their thesis for examination prior to the start of the award. Candidates who have not yet submitted their thesis at the time of application are still eligible, but they must have submitted their thesis prior to the Fellowship start date, and the supervisor’s letter of support must clearly state the expected submission date. Where the viva exam has not taken place before the start of the Fellowship, the outcome must be an outright pass or pass with minor corrections otherwise the Fellowship will be withdrawn. If minor corrections are required, they must be done outside of the time allocated for the Fellowship.
Applications that request a delayed start date will only be considered where there are exceptional circumstances. Requests for a delayed start date due to a later PhD funding end date, whether due to extensions (eg sick or maternity leave or covid extension) or the original start or end date being non-standard, will not be considered to be exceptional circumstances. There are 2 application rounds per year (for start dates at approximately the start and middle of the academic year) for Doctoral Prize Fellowships. Applicants must ensure they apply in the most appropriate round for their career stage. Previously unsuccessful candidates may only reapply by invitation.
3. Funding availability
3.1 Duration:
Funding is available for a maximum of two years. Successful candidates will be asked to submit a progress report mid-way through their appointment.
Fellowships are generally expected to be undertaken on a full-time basis without breaks, although part-time applications will also be considered. Please note that funding is only available for a maximum of two years, whether you are applying for a full-time or part-time position. EPSRC Doctoral Prize fellows who wish to request an exception to this should contact the EPSRC Doctoral Training Manager well in advance of submitting applications for change as prior funder consent needs to be sought.
3.2 Salary:
As newly qualified Postdoctoral Researchers, Fellows will be appointed to Grade 7 point 30 (pro-rata) on the UCL salary scale.
3.3 Other included costs:
Non-salary costs are available for research expenses (e.g. facilities use, consumables),project costs, travel (e.g. visits to collaborators, conferences), and outreach activities (e.g. public engagement, knowledge transfer). A guide figure for non-salary costs is £10k per annum (p.a.). However, due to the breadth of subject areas that may be funded by the EPSRC, this is expected to vary between Fellows, and the requested costs should be appropriate to the proposed project. Projects that require very little in the way of physical resources are expected to request less funds. Higher requests can be approved for projects when accompanied by strong justification. Applicants are advised not to under-request resources in the hope of appearing “better value” – you should request costs that will realistically make the project successful.
Post-doctoral Fellowships are awarded on a non-fEC basis (i.e. only directly-incurred costs are eligible. Estates/infrastructure/indirect costs are excluded). Candidates who are successful at the interview stage will need to work with their host department to produce a worktribe costing for final approval of non-salary costs
4. Intellectual Property (IP)
As part of your application, you will be required to provide information and backing documentation with regards to your projects' Intellectual Property (IP)
Your host institution should have information, relating to PhD students’ IP and who to contact with related queries, available online. The UK Intellectual Property Office is a good sources of background information and training materials relating to IP.
Below you can find a list of questions to consider when thinking about your projects’ IP. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.
- What IP do you expect to develop during your UCL EPSRC Doctoral Prize Impact acceleration fellowship?
- Will your proposed project at UCL build on IP you developed during the course of your PhD? If not, how is the IP you intend to create original?
- Did you develop the IP in your thesis alone, or did you work in collaboration with others?
- Was the IP you developed during your doctoral studies based on background IP, that is pre-existing IP owned by your supervisor or the university in which you were studying?
- Did you assign any IP you developed during your PhD to the institution in which you were studying?
- To the best of your knowledge, are there any other researchers looking to patent or otherwise protect IP relating to your project?
6. How to apply
All applications must be submitted online. The deadline for submission is 12:00 on 22 January 2024. Late, incomplete, or incorrect format applications will not be reviewed. All applicants should be in contact with their proposed host department early in the application process to discuss how they can support you and any local departmental timelines/deadlines.
Shortlisted candidates will be notified by 8 February 2024 of their invitation to interview. Interviews are expected to be held on 14 or 16 February 2024. Interviews will be held online using MS Teams. Candidates will be asked to give a brief presentation which will be followed by questions from the panel. Please indicate when you apply whether you will require any special arrangements for the interview (via the monitoring data collection form).
The shortlisting and interview panels consist of academics from accross the EPSRC remit. All applicants should ensure their applications are written to be accessible to a general scientific audience, and avoiding subject specific technical acronyms and jargon.
6.1 Online submission
Each application requires 2 online form submissions:
- Monitoring Data form - must be submitted by the applicant
- Application document submission form - Due to the limitations of microsoft forms, this must be submitted by someone with a current UCL email address; current UCL students can complete it themselves, external applicants will need support from their proposed host department.
The information required for the monitoring data form is shown below in the monitoring section.
6.2 Application documents
All 3 application documents must be completed using the templates provided on this webpage. They must be saved in docx (word) file format and named according to the formats shown:
- Impact Acceleration Application form - must be completed by the applicant; filename format: firstName_lastName_appFormIAF.docx
- Impact Acceleration Referee form - must be completed by your primary/principal doctoral supervisor and must clearly state the expected or actual thesis submission date; filename format: firstName_lastName_refIAF.docx
- Impact Acceleration HoD support form - must be completed by the Head (HoD) of the proposed UCL host department (or a suitable delegate where the HoD is conflicted); filename format: firstName_lastName_hodIAF.docx
No other documents can be submitted. This includes traditional CVs - the application form contains a standardised CV template section which must be completed instead.
The other information required for application document submission form is shown below in the info required section.
6.5 Information required to complete the online application document submission form
- Applicant name and email address (if the form is completed by UCL staff on behalf of an applicant; the form will automatically record this for applicants who are current UCL students)
- Proposed UCL host faculty and department
- EPSRC theme of the proposed project (Descriptions of the themes are available on EPSRC's website)
- Requirement for a certificate of sponsorship to work in the UK (Yes/No)
- Type of EPSRC funded doctoral studentship held (choose from: CDT, CDT Incorporated, DTP, DTP-CASE, I-CASE)
- EPSRC grant reference for doctoral studentship (All grant references begin with EP/; your CDT or department PGR administrator can find this in your Je-S record)
- Doctoral study Institution (If you are in a multi-partner CDT/program this should be the institution which will award your doctoral degree)
- Expected or actual date of thesis submission (This is the date of the initial thesis submission for examination, not the submission of the final post-viva copy)
- Dates of viva examination and doctoral degree award (if applicable)
- The 3 completed template documents as docx (word) files with the correct format of filename as shown above
6.6 Monitoring Data
The monitoring data will be collected by a separate online form. This form will also ask whether you need any special arrangements for the interview. The monitoring data does not form part of your application and will not be used by the review/interview panel.
Please note, for all successful candidates awarded a Fellowship, this data needs to be reported to EPSRC. Please review their data policy. D1 to D3 need to be reported for each individual awarded Fellow. D4 to D6 will be reported as aggregated data for all Fellows funded from the grant.
For all candidates, anonymised aggregate data will be retained for internal monitoring of the scheme.
D1: Name
D2: ORCID ID (if applicable) [your 16 digit ORCID ID (number only) in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX]
D3: HUSID / HESA ID [your 13 digit HUSID (also known as HESA ID). For UCL students, this can be found in your Portico record – shown as "HESA student ID". Candidates from other universities should ask their university how to find it]
D4: Gender
D5: Nationality
D6: Ethnicity
7. Application document templates to download
Impact Acceleration Application form:
Impact Acceleration Referee form:
Impact Acceleration HoD form:
8. Online forms
Monitoring data form: https://forms.office.com/e/03dLg6AbBP
Application document submission form: https://forms.office.com/e/SyHrX2DbUD