Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships are highly prestigious, fiercely competitive, awards for researchers who are near the start of their post-doctoral career.  The Leverhulme Trust specify you must have submitted their PhD no earlier than 23 February 2019 (unless they have had a career break or their research has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic - see note below) and not later than 4pm on 23 February 2023. 

NB:  Due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the Leverhulme Trust will accept applications from candidates who submitted their doctoral thesis for examination up to five years prior to the closing date if they can make a case for their work having been impacted by the pandemic. Hence those who formally submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination between 23 February 2018 and 23 February 2019 are eligible to apply if their work has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and they should explain their case in their application.

All subjects are eligible except Clinical Medicine (non-clinical research in the School of Clinical Medicine is however, eligible – if in doubt, ask your chosen Host Institution for advice).

Other eligibility criteria must be met - see details below.

Matching Funding Required

Each UK University may submit a limited number of selected applications to the national Leverhulme competition and each candidate put forward for the national round must supply a letter specifying where the institutional matching funding will come from.

The Isaac Newton Trust (INT) is pleased to provide matched funding to support individuals who successfully apply for Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships to be held at the University of Cambridge in the year commencing October 2023.

The application process

This consists of two steps as follows:

a) The INT runs an internal competition to identify which candidates for Leverhulme awards to be held at Cambridge can be offered matching funding;  there are two filters at this stage, the first is a preliminary round at Department/Faculty level and the second one is at a School level.

Note that although it is possible to apply through more than one Cambridge institution, be aware that if you get through the first filter in more than one, your applications will be reduced to one at the second filter (the University is asked to select individuals to put forwards to the national competition, and will not support any individual on two different applications); if you have an interdisciplinary project, or one that could fall into more than one department/faculty, you might choose one host institution and arrange for a second adviser in the other, rather than apply twice – discuss this with your intended host(s).

• You should apply to the Host Institution in which you hope to hold the award by the deadline announced by your intended Host Institution (check with the Head of Host Institution about this);
• the Head of your Host Institution arranges a preliminary competition to select a small number of applicants to put forward for INT funding;
• from these ranked lists, candidates from different departments/faculties are compared and selected for INT support by three internal subject-based panels (Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences; Physical Sciences & Technology; Biology & Biomedical Sciences);
• if you are selected for INT matching funding you will be provided with evidence to send to Leverhulme with your national application.

b) Selected candidates for INT support then apply to the national competition run by the Leverhulme Trust:

• You must apply to the Leverhulme Trust by the national deadline (23 February 2023, 4pm), sending evidence of the INT’s promise to match the Leverhulme’s award;
• the Leverhulme Trust’s academic panels select candidates from those submitted by all the Universities in the UK and will award approximately 100 Fellowships nationwide;
• INT confirm its support only if you are successful at a national level

Before you apply to the internal competition

• Check whether you and your subject are eligible on the Leverhulme Trust’s website.  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.​  NB:  If you are a stipendiary JRF or have held such a JRF at Oxford or Cambridge you are not eligible to apply (non-stipendiary JRFs are not employment - you should mention the JRF in your application but be sure to make clear that it is an honorary position).
• Read the full instructions for the Leverhulme Trust’s national competition
• Identify a Cambridge academic as a suitable host and find the appropriate Cambridge Host Institution in host list;
• Discuss your plans with your intended host and check the Host Institution will be willing in principle to accept you if you are successful in the national competition;
• Find out what deadline has been set by the Head of Institution for the preliminary stage of the internal competition

Applications for the internal competition

NB You should send your application to your intended Cambridge Host Institution, not to the Leverhulme or Isaac Newton Trusts.

An application for the internal competition consists of:

• a cover sheet
• a brief c.v. (not exceeding two sides), and
• a draft of the three items required for the Leverhulme application:

1. a list of your major publications (maximum one side)
2. a statement of your current research (maximum 250 words) and
3. a detailed statement of your proposed research (maximum two sides).

Some Host Institutions hold on file redacted versions of previous successful applications for Leverhulme Fellowships;  these can often be very useful to candidates applying for the current competition, so you might ask your Host Institution if these are available.

References

We try to make things as easy as possible for applicants and referees by asking them to provide material for the internal competition that will be suitable for submission to the national competition, should you be selected for an offer of institutional support. So, if you have any questions about who should be a referee etc, please see the Leverhulme Trust’s Instructions for Applicants 2023.

Note that there are two differences for the internal competition:

• Two letters of reference are needed at the internal stage, of which one should come from outside Cambridge (the national stage of the Leverhulme competition requires a third reference as well, but this is not necessary for the internal INT competition)
• Please ask your referees to send their letters directly to the Cambridge Host Institution by their deadline (see below), not to the Isaac Newton Trust.

Deadlines

• Submit the application to your chosen Host Institution by the deadline it has set for applications - this varies across the University so you need to find out what this is;
• Host Institutions send their ranked list of applicants and supported applications to the Isaac Newton Trust to arrive no later than 9 January 2023
• The Trust will inform selected candidates and their Host Institutions in good time for applying for a Leverhulme award by the national deadline of 23 February 2023, 4pm.  Please note that your Host Institution may need you to complete your final application before this deadline.

The Leverhulme Trust will notify applicants if they have been successful or not, or, if they have been placed on a reserve list during May.  If you are successful and accept your offer, the Leverhulme Trust will write to your Host Institution who will need to formally confirm your place.  Once the Leverhulme Trust are in receipt of this confirmation, you will be sent a final confirmation letter from the Leverhulme Trust.  Please send a copy of this final confirmation letter from the Leverhulme Trust to the Trust Administrator so that the Isaac Newton Trust can finally confirm your matched funding.