Imperial’s prestigious Imperial College Research Fellowships sustain the brightest and best early career researchers from across the world, providing a level of commitment and support that is rare from a UK university. This support gives you the freedom to focus on your research and career trajectory, with no obligatory teaching or administration.
Benefits
As an Imperial College Research Fellow (ICRF) you will receive a four year fellowship which includes:
- A competitive salary
- A research and travel expenses of up to £45,000
- A personal mentoring support from a senior Imperial academic
- Focused careers support, training courses, and development opportunities from the College’s Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre
- The chance to take full responsibility for setting and directing your own research agenda
Eligibility
- Candidates should have a PhD. In exceptional cases, applicants applying to the Faculty of Engineering and Imperial College Business School are permitted to apply before the submission of the PhD, but any offer of funding will be dependent on the PhD being awarded before the start of the fellowship.
- Applications to the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Medicine, a PhD must have been submitted before an application is made and the PhD must be awarded before the start of the fellowship.
- Candidates should have no more than four years post-doctoral research experience in an academic environment (Exceptions would be available to those that had career breaks and career changes, where time spent out of the academic research environment will not be counted in the four years)
- There are no restrictions on nationality; however you will be required to provide evidence of your eligibility to work in the UK before commencing any fellowship offered
The following Departments are not supporting applications to the 2022 ICRF competition (for fellowships starting in 2023). Candidates interested in applying for a fellowship to these Departments are invited to explore other opportunities.
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Life Sciences
- Dyson School of Design Engineering
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering
Application
- Applicant briefings (optional)
The Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre will be running ICRF briefings to help candidates prepare applications. Further details are below, including a sign-up link. The PFDC will be delivering a general session, as well as a women- and a BAME-specific session.
- ICRF briefing – Wednesday 6 July 2022, 14.30-15.30 (Sign up for ICRF briefing here)
- ICRF briefing (BAME) – Tuesday 12 July 2022, 10.00-11.00 (Sign up for ICRF briefing – BAME here)
- ICRF briefing (Women) – Tuesday 12 July 2022, 14.30-15.30 (Sign up for ICRF briefing – Women here)
Step 1: Contact proposed sponsor and proposed host department
Candidates interested in applying are required to contact their proposed sponsor and proposed host department as early as possible, to discuss their intentions to apply and to obtain information about any additional departmental deadlines and local processes. All applications made to the ICRF scheme will require Departmental approval, and so early contact will also give Departments the opportunity to consider and prepare for providing this approval. Candidates should refer to the departmental information below (see ‘Imperial Departments and key contacts) for more information.
Step 2: Submit application
Applications must be submitted via the College’s careers website. The following forms will be required as part of your application. The Department approval obtained in Step 1 must be recorded on the ‘Research Proposal and Budget’ form of the application material.
- Applicant details (required
- Research Proposal and Budget (required)
- Imperial sponsor form (required)
- How to apply guidelines
Candidates are encouraged to write in the first person and to avoid the use of gender pronouns. Attachments uploaded as part of the application should be named in the following format ‘Applicant details_SURNAME’, ‘Imperial sponsor form_SURNAME’ etc. (rather than providing the first name, which can indicate gender).
Step 3: Confidential reference letter (Required)
- Each application must be supported by two confidential reference letters. These are mandatory
- One reference letter must be from the applicant’s current institution. Where the current institution is Imperial, the letter must be provided by someone other than the proposed sponsor or proposed host Head of Department.
- The second reference letter should be from a referee who is well placed to comment on the applicant’s current abilities as a researcher
- As these letters are confidential, they must be submitted directly by the referees to the ICRF Office (researchfellowships@imperial.ac.uk) by 23:59 (BST) 22 August 2022. Letters will then be paired with the relevant application by the ICRF Office
- Candidates are encouraged to share this guidance with those providing reference letters, noting in particular the recommendation to use `they/them’ language (rather than gender pronouns) or to refer to the candidate as `Dr SURNAME’ (rather than providing the first name, which can indicate gender)
- Applicants should use this section of the `Applicant details’ form to provide the names of the referees, to aid the ICRF Office when matching the letters and application”
