Call for Proposals: Personal Research Fellowships (UK)

Purpose

• To provide eligible applicants with the opportunity to take up to to twelve months to focus on a research project of their choice. This award provides funding for the appointment of a temporary replacement to enable the awardee to take research leave, either in their own institution or elsewhere, whilst remaining in continuous employment with their present employer. This award is not to pay the applicants salary. In addition to funding the salary for the replacement member of staff (including on costs), this grant funds research costs for the awardee. This award is designed to provide funding to cover teaching and administrative responsibilities of the applicant, thereby releasing them from these tasks and allowing them research leave to focus on a significant research project, which would otherwise not go ahead. The award is not geared towards applicants who have little need for staff replacement in order to focus full-time on their research.

Funding Information

• Research costs will be funded up to the amount of £5,000.
• The actual cost of replacement staff will be reimbursed 100% according to the University Academic Staff pay scale up to the maximum salary of £45,000 (including on costs), with the replacement determined by the employer according to normal qualifications and experience criteria. The employer may appoint replacement staff on a higher salary, but the additional costs will not be covered by the RSE. Costs associated with training for the Principle Investigator and any co-applicants can only be included if essential for the project delivery.
• Duration: 12 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be existing members of academic staff on open-ended or continuing contracts in a higher education institution (HEI), further education institute (FEI), research institution (RI), or cultural institution (CI) with main offices and facilities in Scotland.
• Applicants on short or fixed-term contracts should ensure their contracts extend for at least three months after the end of the proposed project. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) on staged contracts to permanent lectureship positions are eligible for RSE Personal Research Fellowships but must be in contract for the duration of the award.
• Awardees must not hold other paid appointments without the express permission of the RSE.
• Upon appointment, awardees will be required to devote themselves full-time to the research project specified in the application form. Allowance will be made for graduate supervision (both postgraduate, masters and PhD) and, exceptionally, other limited amounts of research-related administration.
• A new application will not be considered when a report on a previous RSE award is overdue.
• RSE Personal Research Fellowships are open to early and mid-career researchers.
• Early career researcher (ECR) definition: ECR applicants must be within seven years of the award of their PhD (from the point of successful PhD viva to the point of applying) and be within seven years of their first academic appointment (paid contract of employment which lists research or teaching as the primary role). Additionally:
  • Maternity/paternity/parental/adoption leave after award of PhD of up to 18 months per child is taken into consideration. Please include the time you were away from work on maternity/paternity/adoption leave in the section ‘career history’;
  • Documented periods of leave for other reasons, i.e., long-term medical absence, will also be taken into consideration.
• Mid-career academics definition: are normally within no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate. This does not include career breaks.
• Applicants are required to pursue their research in a HEI, FEI, RI or CI in Scotland; only these are acceptable as host institutions. This may be different to their current place of employment.
• The research can be in any academic discipline.

For more information, visit RSE.