LECF 2026: Information for Cambridge Host Institutions

If you wish your applicants to be eligible for institutional matched funding from the Isaac Newton Trust, you will need to enter your top two candidates into the Cambridge Internal competition.

Please note that you set your own deadline for the first stage and will need to make this known to candidates.

New for 2026

As part of the Trust’s centenary year celebrations, the Leverhulme Trust are pleased to announce that from 2026, the scheme will see a reduction in the contribution required by the universities it works with. The Leverhulme Trust will fully fund the first year of fellowships, with match funding in years two and three. The additional boost will bring the total funding for the scheme to £18.85 million in 2026, up from £15.5 million in 2025.  

INT’s basic offer is to match the Leverhulme’s offer of 50% salary + on-costs up to a maximum of £28k in Years 2 and 3 of the Fellowship. INT's support is limited to supporting candidates who start at or below pt 44 on the single spine. Any candidate seeking a starting salary at above 44, will need another (non-INT) source of funds to support the additional cost.

However, INT is aware that the current £56k funding cap may not be adequate to cover salary costs in every year of an award, even for Fellows appointed at the postdoc starting grade (pt 41). INT is committed to assisting host institutions that cannot find the cost of the deficit for candidates appointed at pt 41-44. No suitably qualified candidate should be turned down because of a potential salary deficit, but please note that the INT’s offer of underwriting the deficit in matched funding cannot be used to support a starting salary higher than pt 44 on the single spine. INT believes that this policy is in line with the Leverhulme Trust’s capping of salary costs at the lower end of the postdoc scale.

INT will ask you for projected salary costs to include inflation at the outset on the Host Application Checklist and discuss with you how INT might help to meet any shortfall. Please let us know here if you have any funds you can offer to support the competition. The demands made on INT’s funding are considerable and any support you can make will really make a difference.

Please note that LECFs cannot be matched by funding from UKRI or any other public source.

Submitting Applications for the INT Internal Competition

The deadline for receipt by the Isaac Newton Trust is 13 November 2025, 4pm. Late applications will not be considered.

Please send a single pdf for each selected candidate, up to a maximum of two, with the required documents in the order listed below, to the Trust Administrator:

• Host checklist to include estimates of the salary + on costs for the three years of the award. Please include salary inflation costs. INT will ask whether you can cover some or all of the shortfall in from non-public sources; you may request that INT provides underwriting
• The application materials submitted by the candidate: applicant's internal competition coversheet, cv, list of publications, two statements of research (a statement of current research, and the research the candidate intends to undertake as an LECF)
• Two references sent directly to you from referees nominated by the applicant (please note that:  only one referee can be from Cambridge (and can be the proposed mentor), referees cannot be from the same institution and the head of department at the proposed host department cannot be a referee)
• Your score sheet (questionnaire)for the selected candidate(s) (needed for the internal competition only)
• A covering letter to the INT from the Head of the Host Institution indicating:
  • the names of your top 2 candidates in rank order
  • the total number of applications received
  • information on how the ranking has been produced, such as by your own ranking committee

Our checklist for the internal funding competition reflects as closely as possible the requirements of the Leverhulme Trust’s national competition, so that most materials can be reused for online submission to the Leverhulme Trust. Our requirements regarding the formatting of application documents are not specific but you might find it useful to adopt those required by the Leverhulme Trust.  CVs for the internal competition must not exceed two sides of A4.

Please note that the Leverhulme Trust decides who can be a act as a referee (see Early Career Fellowships Application Help Notes 2026 – our requirements are the same, except that we don’t require a third referee at this stage). INT cannot comment on the suitability of any given referee – you will need to address these questions to the Leverhulme Trust.

The INT will check the eligibility of applicants under the Leverhulme rules and pass eligible applications to the relevant academic School Panel for nomination of candidates for an INT award. These committees comprise senior academics nominated by the Schools.

Putting forward INT-supported candidates to the National Competition

You will be informed of the outcome of the INT competition by mid December. Selected candidates will be issued with offer letters from INT to be included in their application to the national competition. You will need to work with your selected applicants to finalise their application according to the Leverhulme Trust’s requirements and should start this process as soon as you hear from the INT. The national deadline for the Leverhulme Trust competition is 20 February 2025. 

The LECF 2026 Timetable: