Junior Research Fellowship Programme
| Frequency | once per year |
| Upcoming deadline | 08 May 2026, 5pm |
| Funding Amount | £20,000 per annum |
| Funding Duration | up to 3 years |
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences - Stipendiary
The Trustees of the Isaac Newton Trust are pleased to offer support for up to two stipendiary Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) per year in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. These are designed to support eligible Colleges that have partial, but not all of the funds required to cover the full costs of a JRF.
The Isaac Newton Trust will offer successful College applicants:
- a flat-rate contribution of £20,000 per annum, up to 3 years
Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine - Non-Stipendiary
The Trustees of the Isaac Newton Trust also offer up to two non-stipendiary awards per year for STEMM subjects.
The Isaac Newton Trust will offer successful College applicants:
- a flat rate of £3,000 per annum, up to 3 years
Eligibility for this is programme is limited to those Colleges which have been assessed as exempt from making a Contribution to the University under Statute G, Chapter II. This list is updated annually and currently comprises the Colleges listed below:
- Clare Hall
- Darwin College
- Downing College
- Fitzwilliam College
- Hughes Hall
- Lucy Cavendish College
- Murray Edwards College
- Robinson College
- St Edmund's College
- Selwyn College
- Wolfson College
Application deadline: Friday 08 May 2026
Colleges should complete the INT Junior Research Fellow Application Form. This form should be saved as a PDF and emailed to the Trust Administrators.
Applications will be considered by a Sub-Committee of the Trustees. Decisions will be announced by the end of May 2026..
If the application is successful, Colleges will be able to start recruiting for their Junior Research Fellow to start in October 2027.
Once the Junior Research Fellow has been successfully recruited, the College will be asked to provide the INT with:
- a completed and signed Personal Data Consent Form from the recruited fellow
- a CV of the recruited Fellow(s)
Personal Data: The Trust's policy on the collection and use of personal data during the application process and any subsequent grant administration can be found here.
Please note:
- Newton Trust JRF awards are made to Colleges, not directly to the Fellow
- The INT does not accept applications directly from prospective JRFs
- The Trust plays no part in the selection of Fellows - the selection is made by the College advertising the post.
- The INT cannot provide research expenses for College JRFs
Where the Trust’s offer is conditional on the College raising sufficient funding to cover the remainder of the costs, the Fellowship may not be advertised before this condition has been met and full funding has been secured.
Posts should be filled in open competition on intellectual excellence.
Whilst colleges are free to set their own Fellowship stipend according to their general policy needs, the INT Trustees expect the total value of the package (salary plus benefits such as accommodation/rent bursaries) for stipendiary JRFs to be equivalent to at least the lowest point of the PDRA salary scale (point 39 of the University's single spine). The Trust’s contribution is, however, fixed at £20,000 p.a.
Fellowships will normally be advertised for three years’ tenure.
The advertisement should explain that the Fellow should be prepared to offer up to four hours’ teaching a week for the College, but that would not be a binding contractual agreement and teaching would be remunerated separately. The Trust appreciates that not all individual appointees might be able to offer regular teaching, and that some Fellows might wish, for research purposes, to spend a term or a year away from Cambridge.
The Trust strongly recommends that all Colleges offering INT College Research Fellowships work with the ‘Churchill Group’ when recruiting their JRF, and to agree, so far as possible, on the application materials to be submitted by candidates (especially the nature and length of research statements) and the form that references should take.
The INT also strongly recommends that you engage with the relevant University Faculty in the selection of your JRF. Apart from providing a check on the quality of the selected person, the appointee will also benefit from a formal association with a cognate academic community. You might find it useful to ask the relevant Head of Department for assurances about the facilities and resources being available to the top candidates of your JRF short-list.
The title ‘Isaac Newton’ or ‘Newton’ should appear in the advertisement as part of the title of the Fellowship. The Trust’s square wordmark should also be used where possible; please see our website for information about the Trust's logo and style guide.
