AMBS recognises that academic fellowships can be an important route to developing and/or consolidating one’s research programme. Before developing any fellowship applications, you should discuss you plans with the Research Office who will be able to advise on any criteria or internal processes which must be followed to gain university approval for the application.

For Early Career Researchers (normally individuals with less than 5 years between their PhD examination and the fellowship deadline) academic fellowships are often the primary means of either making the transition from PhD to a first full-time academic role, or from a research associateship to a self-directed research programme.

However, fellowships are highly competitive, attracting applications from the best researchers across the world. Many also require increasing and very substantial resources from the host institution, as well as a significant investment of time from the applicant, their academic mentor and research support staff.

To help guide the process of building towards an Early Career Fellowship application, the AMBS Fellowship Protocol sets out the criteria which would be required for the School to support an application to some of the most competitive and desirable fellowship calls. However, this guidance should not be seen as absolute. Instead, anyone considering a fellowship should first discuss their options with the Research Office. They will be able to advise on the most suitable schemes and support strategies to address any development needs.

The School also welcomes requests for support of applications for Visiting Fellowships. These applications should meet the following criteria as a minimum:

• The maximum duration for all Visiting Research Fellowships is 12 months.
• Fellowships should not normally last less than one month in order to allow enough time for meaningful engagement with the School.
• There is an expectation that Visiting Research Fellows will engage proactively with the School during their tenure, for example by offering a collaborative seminar for AMBS staff and students on their area of research or professional expertise.

For further information relating to the process, please visit the University's Consultancy pages.