The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council now offers two categories of fellowship: a postdoctoral fellowship in a limited range of scientific areas and an 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.
Postdoctoral fellowships
EPSRC selects which scientific areas they will fund postdoctoral fellowships in at different times so you should refer to EPSRC's list of priority areas to check whether applications are currently being accepted for your scientific area. As of January 2024 applications are currently being accepted in 'energy', 'mathematical sciences' and 'synthetic biology'. We encourage all applicants to carry out a remit check to confirm their proposed project is within remit. The UKRI Stephen Hawking Postdoctoral Fellowship that was previously administered under this scheme is now closed to applications.
Funding is available for up to 3 years, which includes your salary, travel and subsistence and research expenses including consumables, but only equipment costing under £10k.
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 -EPSRC postdoctoral 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.