Fellowship applications
Externally funded Fellowships
If you are interested in holding an externally-funded personal fellowship based in CAR, we will be pleased to hear from you. Either contact a CAR member of staff working in a research field related to your own, or contact Prof. Kristen Coppin, the Centre Director, to discuss options. More details (including any internal deadlines) for some of the most popular individual fellowships are given below. If you're particularly interested in applying for a fellowship not listed here, please contact us well in advance of the deadline (before or as soon as the call opens, ideally) as some schemes require a department- or university-wide approval procedure which will need to be followed before we can put you forward.STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (ERF)
A quota for applications for each UK university is applied by STFC. If you wish to apply to hold one of these hosted at the University of Hertfordshire starting in 2024, please see the Ernest Rutherford fellowship information on the UKRI website for more information on the scheme and the application process and deadlines. We will select the applicants to support within our STFC-imposed quota by an internal evaluation process -- to be considered for this you should identify a contact person at the University of Hertfordshire (the Director of CAR will be happy to advise) and work with them to prepare draft application materials (in particular the science case for support, but also the narrative CV and publication list required by STFC) which should all be submitted to the Director of CAR (Prof. Kristen Coppin) by our internal deadline this year of noon on 24 July 2023 to be given full consideration. The STFC closing date for the 2023/24 fellowships round is expected to be around mid-September (TBC).
Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF)
Full details of all The Royal Society fellowship schemes can be found on their website; the URF is aimed at outstanding early-career researchers who are ready to lead their own independent research programme, with between 3 and 8 years' postdoctoral experience (career breaks are taken into consideration). If eligible, please express interest in applying for this scheme as early as possible, and by 24 July 2023 at the latest for the 2024 intake by contacting the Director of CAR, as you will need support from the University of Hertfordshire Research Office for costing up and submitting your application by the published deadline (which usually occurs in the first week of September each year). No quota is applied by the Royal Society for this fellowship opportunity.
Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF)
Round 8 of the FLF scheme has been recently announced, and again is aimed at early career researchers and innovators who are looking to establish or transition to independence across UKRI’s remit (which includes STFC astronomy). There is no minimum or maximum award value and your project can last for up to four years, with the option to apply to renew for a further three years. Further details, including eligibility and scheme guidance notes can be found here and we recommend reading these in full before getting in touch. If you wish to be considered towards our University's quota (2 applications) for Round 8 we would be delighted to hear from you - so please get in touch with us as soon as possible to find out what you will need to prepare and submit for our internal application sift. Notice by email received by the Director of CAR by noon on 17 April 2023 will be given full consideration and prospective candidates will also be required to attend an internal information clinic on April 19 2023 and to submit a full expression of interest to our Associate Dean of Research by April 25 2023 (on a proforma), with full applications from our University quota-selected candidates due on July 4 2023.
Royal Astronomical Society Research Fellowship
Applications for this RAS Research Fellowship scheme will be sought every three years, in 2024 and 2027. The purpose of these fellowships is to enable outstanding candidates to pursue research in the UK in the disciplines advanced by the RAS ie astronomy, solar system science, geophysics and closely related branches of these sciences. The Normal Lockyer Fellowship is similar to the RAS fellowship and applications will be next sought in 2025, and 2028.