The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council now offers two categories of fellowship: a postdoctoral fellowship in a limited range of scientific areas and this open fellowship applicable across the whole portfolio of physical, engineering and energy sciences.
Interested applicants should consult the EPSRC fellowships pages for more information on expected career stage for each fellowship type. Applications from May 2023 are now made through the new UKRI TFS portal (not via JeS). You cannot resubmit the same project proposal should your application be unsuccessful.
EPSRC also occasionally open ad hoc fellowship calls in specific research areas such as quantum technologies, fluid dynamics etc. As of January 2024, there is an upcoming call in quantum technologies.
Open fellowships
Funding is available for up to 5 years, which includes your salary, salary support for PDRAs, travel and subsistence, and research expenses including equipment up to £400,000 per item.
Note that EPSRC say Open Fellowships are applicable to all career stages beyond postdoctoral level and includes researchers who are close to their first academic appointment, leading in an area of technical development, or are a highly experienced researcher (established faculty can also apply). It is expected that applicants will have already have been in receipt of significant funding (>£100k) and hence applicants are most likely to have several years of postdoctoral experience. Do discuss your career stage with the Facilitation Team before planning to apply.
Open Fellowships now provide opportunities not only for traditional research Fellowships, but also enable applicants to focus on innovation, instrumentation/technique development or software engineering or to include non-technical elements to create positive change in the research community should they wish (included in the Open Plus version of the scheme).
As of January 2024, the scheme is open with no set deadline, applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Further information is available on the funder's website, links below.
Open: EPSRC open fellowships Dec 2023: responsive mode – UKRI
Open Plus: EPSRC open plus fellowships Dec 2023: responsive mode – UKRI
To apply to make an application with Oxford Physics as your host, please submit an expression of interest (EOI) to fellowships@physics.ox.ac.uk. As there is no funder deadline we are currently accepting EOIs on a rolling basis with no deadline. EOIs should consist of the following -
- CV
- Publication and output list
- 1-page summary of the proposed research project which will form the basis of the fellowship application
- CC your Oxford Physics sponsor (an academic based in the department who supports your application, you should discuss this with them prior to submitting your EOI). If your EOI is approved by the department to apply to the scheme, you will also require a second reader to support your application (another academic based in the department).
Deadlines and timescales
There is currently no expression of interest (EOI) deadline as the funder deadline is rolling however please submit your EOI around 3 months prior to when you anticipate submitting your application and leave plenty of time if your current funding is ending (assessment of applications typically takes 9-12 months from submission to project start date).
Guidance and useful info
Once we know that you intend to apply we will be able to send you our internal guidance documents.
The interview stage is an important part of the selection process so if you are invited for interview please notify the facilitation team and your local academic contacts as soon as possible so that mock interviews can be arranged in advance of the real interview.