How to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship award in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Below is some information about the postdoctoral funding schemes that the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA) regularly supports. If you are interested in applying to these (or any other scheme not listed below), then please contact us. British Academy International Fellowship IASH-HCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship - 17 June 2024 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship - 1 August 2024 Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship - 11 November 2024 General Points to Note For all of the schemes mentioned, there are a few general points to consider: 1) There is usually a School deadline, which can be a few months before the funder’s deadline. When these deadlines are confirmed this page will be updated so make sure you check regularly. We have an early deadline for a number reasons, for some schemes a shortlisting process is required since we can only support a specific number of applications. All confirmed applications also go through peer review, which can take a number of weeks to arrange. Peer reviews are carried out by two members of staff with extensive research experience. The main aim of this process is to provide constructive feedback to help you improve your application. The peer reviewers will not be the same as your mentor in the School, who is expected to provide continued support throughout the application process. Most schemes also require institutional approval before final submission, which can take a few days. 2) Although we can advise, it is up to each applicant to check they are eligible to each scheme before they apply. Each fellowship scheme has different aims, so the eligibility criteria vary, as do the qualities that the Funder is looking for in an application so it is important you read the Funder’s guidance before applying. 3) Find a mentor within HCA before you apply. Your mentor should be an experienced colleague in this School whose research interests are similar to yours, as they will help you to develop your research proposal and, if your application is successful, provide advice throughout the project. Mentors are not allocated, so you will need to contact a suitable member of staff directly. Please note that honorary and emeritus staff are not eligible for this role, as mentors must be current University of Edinburgh employees. Even if the fellowship scheme you are applying to does not ask you to name a mentor on the application form, the School still requires you to have one in order to apply. Below are links to information about our HCA academic community. HCA Staff Webpage HCA Staff Search by research interest HCA Edinburgh Research Explorer page 4) Contact the Research Office. Once you have contacted a mentor, you should also contact the HCA Research, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Office (RKEIO) hca-research@ed.ac.uk to let us know that you are planning to apply. We will be able to advise you on the financial and administrative aspects of your application, and answer questions about the application process. We will also organise the peer reviews. Overview of Fellowship Schemes and Timelines All dates are subject to change (until confirmed by the Funder), but the order below follows (approximately) the order the internal HCA deadlines open over a calendar year. British Academy International Fellowship *Please note that British Academy are yet to confirm details for the 2024 round, so some details may need to change* Deadline for initial expression of interest and mentor statement: TBC Notification to the successful applicants who will submit with HCA: TBC Funder deadline: TBC This three-year fellowship is open to early career researchers who work outside the UK and do not hold UK citizenship. Applicants are expected to have discussed their application with their mentor in HCA before the first deadline. For the initial expression of interest deadline, applicants are asked to send a brief outline of their research proposal (which should be no more than 400 words) and their CV to hca-research@ed.ac.uk. HCA mentors are also expected to provide a supporting statement to the same address by this date. Details about last year's round can be found on the BA International Fellowship website. IASH-HCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Funder deadline: TBC The 2025 funding call will be open to applicants in Archaeology. This is a 10-month fellowship managed by the University's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH). The Fellowship cycles through the three subject areas within HCA annually. The Fellowship is intended to encourage outstanding interdisciplinary research, international scholarly collaboration, and networking activities of visiting Research Fellows together with academics in HCA. Fellows will be expected to work in collaboration with one or more members of HCA academic staff, and to take an active part in IASH interdisciplinary events. For more information, please see the IASH's website. HCA arrange the initial review of applications, but the final decision is made by IASH. Candidates should have been successfully awarded a PhD by the time they apply and must be within 3 years of PhD completion (with allowance made for career interruptions due to maternity leave, family commitments, illness, or other accepted exceptional circumstances). For 2024-25, this means submission of a final version of the thesis with all corrections was made after April 2021 and before May 2024. A supporting statement is required from an HCA staff member. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship Webinar about the scheme: 11 June 2024 Deadline for initial applications to HCA Research Office: 17 June 2024 Funder deadline: 11 September 2024 Before you submit the initial application, you should already have identified and discussed your application with an academic mentor within the School. You should send your CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief outline of your proposal (maximum 800 words) to hca-research@ed.ac.uk by 17 June 2024. The research proposal should explain the choice of HCA as the host venue and focus in particular on 1.1 of the application: 1.1 Quality and pertinence of the project’s research and innovation objectives (and the extent to which they are ambitious, and go beyond the state of the art) This is an international mobility fellowship, and researchers of any nationality can apply as long as they have spent less than twelve months in the UK in the three years prior to their application. Research proposals are assessed on the basis of academic excellence, and as the pool of potential applicants is so large, standards are very high. For further information, and to check the eligibility criteria, please see the funder's website. British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Deadline for initial expression of interest to HCA Research Office: 1 August 2024 Funder deadline: 2 October 2024 Applications for this scheme go through a shortlisting process within HCA. You should have discussed your application with a mentor in HCA before the initial deadline on 1 August. For the initial deadline, you should send your CV (no more than 2 pages, including a select bibliography) and a brief summary of your research proposal to hca-research@ed.ac.uk. The research proposal at this initial stage should ideally be a couple of paragraphs (maximum 800 words). A budget is not required for this initial deadline. Applicants should be UK or EEA nationals or have a PhD from a UK university. The main selection criteria is academic excellence. For further information and to check the eligibility criteria, please see the British Academy's website. Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship Applications for Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships open in January 2025, but our internal process begins in November 2024. Deadline for initial applications to HCA Research Office: 11 November 2024 Notification to the successful applicants who will submit with HCA: By 6 December 2024 Funder deadline: TBC Applications for this scheme go through a shortlisting process within HCA. For this initial stage, you should submit a research proposal and a CV that includes publications. You should also send us contact details of a referee (who is external to the School) who the research office will contact once we have received your application. The proposal and the CV should each be a maximum of 2 pages A4. The research proposal should include: A detailed statement of the proposed research; Research relevant to the proposal being carried out in the host department; and Additional reasons for selecting the proposed host department and institution. The proposal should also adhere to Leverhulme’s guidelines on formatting: Arial font size 11; margins no smaller than 2cm; and line spacing no smaller than a single line. For eligibility criteria and further information about the scheme, please check Leverhulme's website. For more information about the initial application, please contact our Research Office. Research, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Office Contact details Work: 0131 650 4561 Email: hca-research@ed.ac.uk This article was published on 2024-06-19
