RCUK Academic Fellowships

Frequently asked questions

Questions from HEIs

17. What is the role of the coordinator?
1. The coordinator is the individual within the HEI who is leading the management of the Academic Fellows within the HEI and will be the main contact for the proposal. They will manage the assignment of the Fellowships in the HEI if awarded.

17. What are the Priority Areas and how broad are they?
1. The Priority Areas are the areas which the HEI wishes to develop and strengthen through, amongst other things, RCUK Academic Fellows. These areas should be in line with strategies put forward to the Funding Councils or similar bodies; which should be based on the HEIs own Strategic plan.

17. Do the fellows have to have current employment as contract researchers at the institution which is applying for funding?
1. We would expect that most fellows will currently be on research contracts; however this may not be the case for all applicants in particular women returners. The post of academic fellows should be advertised in open competition so will be available to people from other HEIs (and, indeed from outside the UK) but the host HEI will need to have a funding profile in place for the appointed person.

17. Are there restrictions on the nationality of researchers who can be supported (e.g. would it be possible to appoint a national of another European/International country)?
1. The posts are subject to the HEIs recruitment policies which should be in accord with employment legislation; the Research Councils are not putting restrictions on this as it is the HEI who is the employer.

17. Is there any restriction on how the additional funding is sourced?
1. No, as long as the other funding body(s) is happy to share the support of the individual and the shared funding does not distract the researcher from the work defined by the fellowship.

17. Does the flexibility and virement which is built into the system allow the HEI to, say, bring forward appointments from year 2 to year 1 within the same priority area? (ie if we were allocated one Fellowship per year in Priority Area X in years 1 and 2, but our advert in year 1 yielded such a good crop of candidates that we could make two appointments immediately, would that be allowed?
1. Yes, we wish the HEI to use the awards flexibly and appoint the best people with a well planned research and funding profile. Therefore we will allow the use of Year 2 fellows in Year 1 and the carry over of Year 1 Fellows into Year 2.EPSRC will reserve the right to amend the payment schedule if necessary.

Questions from individuals

17. Are there restrictions on the nationality of researchers who can be supported (e.g. would it be possible to appoint a national of another European/International country)?
1. The posts are subject to the HEIs recruitment policies; the Research Councils are not putting restrictions on this as it is the HEI who is the employer.

17. Will the Academic Fellowship Scheme replace the Research Councils existing Research Fellowship schemes?
1. No, these Academic Fellowships are in addition to any other existing research fellowship schemes and do not provide the full salary support that an advanced research fellowship provides but only top-up money to other sources of funding.

17. Will the HEI apply for this scheme? If so how can I as a research assistant put my name forward?
1. UK HEIs will be able to apply for a number of Academic Fellowships, if awarded the HEI will then be required to advertise these fellowships in open competition. The Research Councils will publish a list of awards to HEIs by priority area. Therefore interested individuals should look for adverts for these positions in the usual academic press.

17. Will an RCUK Academic Fellow be eligible to apply for Research Council grants?
1. An Academic Fellow is able to apply for Research Council funding, except where the cofunding does not allow such eligibility. An individual who is not eligible to apply for Research Council grants at the start of their academic fellowship, due to the status provided by the other funding sources, will become eligible to hold a Research Council research grant from the end of that funding. They will be able to submit grant applications in sufficient time to allow the take up of an award at the end of the research supported by other sources.