The University of Exeter is inviting expressions of interest from post-doctoral researchers considering making an application for the 2025 Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships scheme. e will be supporting a limited number of applications for the scheme and there will be an internal sift for candidate selection.

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and it is hoped that Fellowships will lead to a more permanent academic position, either within the same institution or another institution. Approximately 145 Fellowships will be available in 2025.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must not yet have held a full-time permanent academic post in a UK university or comparable UK institution, nor may Fellows hold such a post concurrently with the Early Career Fellowship. The Trust will consider applications from candidates whose permanent post does not include any research.
• Applicants must hold a doctorate by the time they take up the fellowship.
• Applications are invited from those with a doctorate who submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination not more than four years prior to the application closing date. Hence those who formally submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination before 20 February 2021 are not eligible unless they have since had a career break. Please note that time spent working outside of academia does not qualify as a career break. 
• Those currently registered for a doctorate may apply only if they have submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination by the closing date of 4pm on 20 February 2025. 
• Applicants must either hold a degree from a UK higher education institution at the time of taking up the Fellowship or at the time of the application deadline must hold an academic position in the UK (e.g. fixed-term lectureship, fellowship) which commenced no less than 4 months prior to the closing date. Hence, those who do not hold a UK degree and whose UK academic position commenced after October 2024 are not eligible. The Trust will consider candidates without a UK degree whose UK academic post commenced after October 2024 if they have been in continuous UK academic employment for more than 4 months prior to the deadline. The intention is to support the career development of those building an academic career within the UK. 
• Successful applicants must be based in Exeter to take up the fellowship, it cannot be undertaken remotely.
• Candidates who have held or currently hold postdoctoral positions to pursue their own independent research totalling 3 or more years are not eligible to apply.
• A candidate may submit only one application per year. Previously unsuccessful applicants can reapply.
• The Research Awards Advisory Committee believes that the development of an academic career is best served by gaining experience at different institutions. Applicants who have not already moved institutions in the course of their academic career (i.e. between their undergraduate university and proposed host university) should nominate a new host university, or otherwise demonstrate clear evidence of the academic and/or personal reasons for remaining at the same university, such as access to highly specialist equipment or a highly specialised research team.

If you would like to apply to hold a fellowship in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences you must submit an expression of interest no later than 15th November 2024.