Current Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities at UCL SSEES.
Explore this page:
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship
- British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Engangered Languages Documentation Programme Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship
- The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
- Criteria for SSEES Approval
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships are provided to excellent researchers, undertaking international mobility either to, or between, EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, as well as to non-associated Third Countries.
The goal of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD and who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will be open to excellent researchers of any nationality.
Through the implementation of an original and personalised research project, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships aim to foster excellence through training and mobility and to equip researchers with new skills and competences in order to identify solutions to current and future challenges. Postdoctoral researchers are encouraged to engage with society at large to make the results of their research visible to citizens and to involve citizens, civil society and end-users in co-creation of research content when relevant.
Applications are made jointly by the researcher and a beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sector.
Application process
It is essential that applicants make contact in advance with a relevant member of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies academic staff who should agree to be their mentor and jointly complete their draft application, using the templates for this year’s competition, available via the EC Funding & Tenders website. Applicants will be required to confirm their own eligibility, in terms of research experience and mobility, following the criteria set out there. Mentors will be required to provide a statement of support for the application by 11 July 2024.
Completed applications (PDF download from the EC submissions system) should be submitted by email to Dr Alicia Barnes, Senior Research Coordinator (alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk), by the internal deadline and to whom any queries may be addressed. Applications should not be submitted in the online system at this stage.
Deadlines
- UCL SSEES deadline: 5pm on 11 July 2024
- MSCA-PF-2024 deadline: 4pm (BST) / 5pm (CEST) on 11 September 2024
Further details
UKRO-MSCA Webinars
- Recordings: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 webinars
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship offers outstanding early career researchers the opportunity to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in an academic environment. This scheme aims to help develop the award holder’s curriculum vitae and boost their prospects of obtaining a permanent academic post. The primary emphasis is on the completion of a significant piece of publishable research, and the integration of the award holder into the community of established scholars within their field.
The scheme provides funding to cover the costs of a 36-month fellowship at a UK host institution. Applicants must be within three years from the date of their successful viva voce examination (e.g. completed viva voce between 1 April 2022 and 1 April 2025).
The deadline for outline applications is 2 October 2024. Please note, if supported by SSEES, your application will need to be ready for submission before the final funder deadline, to allow for internal approval processes.
Applicants must be either a UK/EEA national, or have completed a doctorate at a UK university. Applicants who do not fall into one of these categories must demonstrate a 'strong prior association' with the UK academic community. Full eligibility criteria are given on the British Academy website - applicants are required to confirm their own eligibility to apply to the scheme.
Application process
For the School of Slavonic and East European studies, applicants must complete the below application form based on the online application form in Flexi-Grant, which should be emailed to Dr Alicia Barnes, Senior Research Coordinator (alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk), alongside a CV (max 2 pages, A4) by 5pm, Thursday 22 August 2024.
Prospective applicants are required to identify a suitable mentor in SSEES and work together on the application with them. Mentors are also required to submit a statement of support by this deadline indicating how applications meet the criteria given below. Late or incomplete applications or those without the agreed support of a mentor will not be considered.
Deadlines
- UCL SSEES deadline: 5pm (BST), 22 August 2024
- British Academy deadline (including Referee Statement & Institutional Approval): 5pm (BST) 2 October 2024
Any queries may be directed to Dr Alicia Barnes (alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk)
Further Details
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship
The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants for the documentation of endangered languages globally. ELDP especially welcomes applications from documenters from language communities, local scholars and students from the country where the language is spoken/signed, as well as collaborative and interdisciplinary projects.
The Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (IPF) provides support for early career scholars – awarded their PhD no more than five years prior to the proposed start date of the fellowship – for up to 24 months, including salary and fieldwork expenses, up to 250,000 Euros. For an IPF ELDP expects:
- A prior track record of documentary work, archiving and research publications
- A clear relationship to the host institution in terms of intellectual relationships, as well as academic and technical support
- A clear mentoring relationship between a staff member at the host institution and the PI
- Clear strategies for both documentation and research for the period of the award
IPF awardees are required to hold their fellowship at an institution other than the institution where their PhD was awarded. Applicants can choose to hold their fellowship at the same institution where their PhD was awarded, but they must provide sound and convincing reasons for this decision.
Application process
To apply with SSEES, you must identify and attain the support of a suitable mentor who will need to support the development of your project and provide a statement of support for your application. A full draft of the proposal (application instructions found here) should be submitted to Dr Alicia Barnes (alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk) by 26 August for review and approval.
Deadlines:
- UCL SSEES deadline: 4pm (BST) 26 August 2024
- Funder deadline (application): 1 October 2024
- Funder deadline (supporting statements): 15 October 2024
The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
This fellowship is for early career researchers, with a research record but who have not yet held a full-time permanent academic post, to undertake a significant piece of publishable work.
The Trust places special weight on:
- Originality: the research achieves more than the incremental development of a single discipline
- Importance: the work will enable further research or enquiry
- Significance: the proposed research has relevance outside a single field, and is able to excite those working in other disciplines
- Merit: the quality of the research design and methodology, and the suitability of the researchers and institution for the realisation of the proposed research objectives
Applicants must have submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination not more than four years prior to the application closing date.
Full details of the scheme can be found on the Leverhulme Trust website.
The scheme provides funding for 50% of the Fellow’s total salary costs including employer contributions, up to a maximum of £28,000 in each year of the award, and up to £6,000 per annum for research expenses.
Due to the match-funding required, the number of applications UCL can support will be limited.
Internal Demand Management
SSEES may submit up to three applications to the Arts & Humanities Faculty demand management process, where two will be selected for submission to the funder. SSEES will run its own demand management process to ensure we put the most competitive applications forward to the Faculty.
To apply, you will need to submit a Leverhulme Application Form and a Mentor Supporting Statement to Dr Alicia Barnes (alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk) by 4pm (BST) 14 October 2024. A SSEES selection panel will then review applications and provide feedback by 6 November 2024 for successful applicants to implement before the Faculty competition submission.
Timeline
- 4pm (BST) 14 October 2024 – applications submitted to alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk
- 6 November 2024 – outcomes and feedback communicated with applicants
- 6-13 November 2024 – panel feedback implemented and applications resubmitted to alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk for Faculty competition
- 20 November 2024 – Faculty outcomes announced
- 4pm (GMT) 20 February 2025 – Leverhulme Trust deadline
Documents
Criteria for SSEES Approval
The School of Slavonic and East European Studies will review draft applications on the quality of the individual applicant appropriate to their career stage (such as peer-reviewed publications), ambition of the research proposal (e.g. is it intellectually exciting, innovative), feasibility of the research proposal (e.g. consideration of risks and mitigations, contingency plans), fit of the project with the applicant’s existing experience and with current SSEES research.
Following SSEES review, selected candidates will then be mentored through the application process by UCL and SSEES staff.
Please contact Dr Alicia Barnes at alicia.barnes@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.