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Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships 2020/2021

14 November 2019

The Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy at UCL is now welcoming applications for the 2020/2021 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships scheme.

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The Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy at UCL is now welcoming applications for the 2020/2021 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships scheme: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/early-career-fellowships

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. Eligibility criteria can be found here: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/grant-schemes/early-career-fellowships/eligibility . Main points:

  • Applicants must not yet have held a full-time permanent academic post in a UK university or comparable UK institution, nor may Fellows hold such a post concurrently with the Early Career Fellowship

  • All candidates must hold a doctorate or have equivalent research experience by the time they take up the Fellowship. Those who are or have been registered for a doctorate at any time may apply only if they have submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination by the closing date of 4pm on 27 February 2020.

  • Applications are invited from those with a doctorate who submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination not more than four years prior to the application closing date. Hence those who formally submitted their doctoral thesis before 27 February 2016 are not eligible unless they have since had a career break

  • Applicants must either hold a degree from a UK higher education institution at the time of taking up the Fellowship or at the time of the application deadline must hold an academic position in the UK (e.g. fixed-term lectureship, fellowship, not permant, see first point) which commenced no less than 4 months prior to the closing date. Hence, those who do not hold a UK degree and whose UK academic position commenced after October 2019 are not eligible. The Trust will consider candidates without a UK degree whose UK academic post commenced after October 2019 if they have been in continuous UK academic employment for more than 4 months prior to the deadline.

The Trust will contribute 50% of each Fellow's total salary costs up to a maximum of £25,000 per annum and the balance will covered by UCL. Annual research expenses of up to £6,000 will also be paid through this scheme. Fellowships are expected to last for three years on a full-time basis and should commence between 1 September 2020 and 1 May 2021.

Candidates are required to complete the online Leverhulme application form for this call, therefore they will need to create a profile via the Leverhulme website: https://grants.leverhulme.ac.uk/Login.aspx . Please note that applications not on the Leverhulme online application form will be deemed ineligible. Please also note that at this stage budget details and/or referee statements are not required. Candidates should take care when filling the online application form and not ‘submit’ it.

Please note that candidates must have the support of a member of staff who will act as the mentor and who has reviewed and commented on the proposal before it is submitted to the department for consideration. A list of academics can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science/people/academic.

Once completed, a PDF of the online application form should be sent to Monica Burgess copying in Dr Lisa Vanhala by 5pm, on 6th January 2020. The department will be able to select up to five candidates who will then be put forward for a further selection process by the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences. Faculty will communicate their decision by 13th February and Leverhulme's deadline is on 27th February 2020.

Further information:

  • Leverhulme’s application guidelines (attached) are available for this call. There are specific word limits for each application section.

  • There is no need to include: budget; referee details; Institutional Approver details. If candidates are selected to apply, they will be working on the budget with myself, will be allowed to contact referees and our department will fill in the Institutional Approver section with the help of  candidates mentors.

  • There is no mentor’s field in this application. However mentor’s details can be added to the Institutional Approver’s section after candidates have been selected to apply.

  • It would be useful if candidates copied in their departmental mentor when sending the application to us on 6th Jan. There is no need for a separate mentor’s statement. 
    We will not know whether candidates are selected to apply to the Leverhulme until early February when Faculty will communicate their decision to us. In January we are selecting at departmental level only in order to forward our selected candidates to Faculty.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch with Monica Burgess.