Ukri Future Leader Fellowship

Newcastle University’s Selection and Support Exercise for Round 9of the UKRI Future Leader Fellowships is now open.

Details of the Scheme are at: Pre-announcement: Future Leaders Fellowships: round 9 – UKRI

The scheme is open to early career researchers and innovators from across business, universities, and other organisations, and welcomes applicants from around the world. Awards are for an ambitious programme of research and to support career development for up to four years, with the ability to extend for a further three years, to focus and continue your development. There is no lower or upper limit on the funding that can be requested. UKRI wants to fund the best fellows no matter what their background. The Future Leaders Fellowships scheme has been developed with unprecedented levels of flexibility to support applicants from a wide range of experiences, disciplines and sectors.

UKRI believes “fostering inclusion is essential for a high-performing research and innovation (R&I) system. As the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation we have a responsibility to ensure the health of the system as a whole, now and in the future. We need a diversity of people and ideas to achieve this”. In line with this, and with Newcastle University’s own values, no applicant will be disadvantaged or receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation in our internal competition.

An information session, including Q&A with a successful FLF applicant and now award-holder, will be held on Tuesday 13th February 15:00 – 16:15 on Zoom (https://newcastleuniversity.zoom.us/j/81410527489).  To sign-up, please complete the booking form at: https://forms.office.com/e/k5jbENSnZ5.  Anyone interested in being considered as a Newcastle University applicant is encouraged to attend.  All are welcome.  The session will be recorded for those who cannot attend. 

Newcastle University is limited by the funder in the number of applications that we can make to this competition.  We will therefore be holding a selection and support process.  This is for candidates currently at Newcastle and those who are not but wish to apply to hold a Future Leader Fellowship here.  

The timeline that we need to follow for our internal selection and support is given below.  We apologise for the short timeframes of the internal selection, designed to avoid the Easter period.  This is due to the timing of the funder call and our need to give our chosen applicants as long as possible to work on their proposals. 

Applicants must have the support of their host unit before applying. By submitting your proposal to this internal selection you are confirming that this is the case.  We do not need to see evidence of this.  Please contact the relevant Director of Expertise (or equivalent) to discuss your application as soon as possible. If you are unsure who this should be please contact your local Research Funding Development Manager in the first instance. For external candidates please contact either Beth Davidson (beth.davidson@ncl.ac.uk) or Jo Gascoigne-Owens (Johanna.gascoigne-owens@ncl.ac.uk) who can advise you further.  

Candidates should submit the following by Monday 18th March, 12 Noon UK time:

1. A title of the proposed fellowship.
2. Identification of which Research Council remit(s) the proposed fellowship aligns to.
3. A statement on your primary area of research or innovation (up to 200 characters).
4. A statement on the research focus of the fellowship proposal (up to 2000 characters).
5. A detailed description of the 7-year programme of research (up to 4000 characters total). This should consist of a detailed description of the 4 year programme (3000 characters) and a description of activities envisaged in years 5-7 (1000 characters).
6. A description as to why the FLF is suitable for you, how will this fellowship change and develop your career and where you see yourself at the end (up to 1000 characters).
7. A description of how you have previously demonstrated leadership skills, what steps you will take to become a Future Leader and what specific support you will arrange for this (up to 1000 characters).
8. An outline of any independent funding obtained to develop your ‘transition to independence’ and, if holding a tenured Faculty position, what full-time equivalent research time you have had in that post as well as any funding obtained to develop independence.

Please note: if successful, academic Fellows’ full working time will be committed to the Fellowships. Academic Fellows would not be expected to be spending more than around six hours a week (pro-rated for part-time Fellows) on other commitments (or up to two sessions a week for Clinical Fellows) during the first two years of the Fellowship. These ‘extra’ activities must enhance your career development. 

9. For administrative purposes only and to ensure you receive the appropriate support for the development of your fellowship proposal could you please answer the following questions:

• Does Newcastle University own the preliminary research results, data, process or technology (Background IP) that you wish to use as a basis for the research programme in the fellowship? [Yes/No]
• Does any element of the research programme involve NHS staff, NHS patients or NHS premises? [Yes/No]

10. A Curriculum Vitae of up to 2 pages. 

Please note that we expect UKRI to ask applicants to submit this as an R4RI/Narrative CV. This is a tailored CV specific to the project proposed. At this stage, we are happy to receive either a traditional CV or a narrative CV.  If you submit a traditional CV, please consider highlighting areas of particular relevance to your proposed FLF. 

       Given the timings and timeframes we are all working with, we have tried to keep the information required to a minimum, whilst also giving our panel sufficient information to make an informed decision. 

Your submission will be considered by a panel Chaired by our Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, and including our Deans of Research and Innovation for each Faculty, our Dean of Research Culture and Strategy, our NUAcT fellowship programme lead and FLF award holders.  Your submission will be considered against the same assessment criteria as will be used by UKRI (Pre-announcement: Future Leaders Fellowships: round 9 – UKRI). 

Applications should be submitted through the Newcastle University recruitment portal by Monday 18th March 12 Noon UK time.  Please attach the above information as follows:

• Items 1 to 9 as a single PDF in numerical order in the ‘cover letter’ field;
• Item 10 in the ‘CV’ field. 

Please contact us if you have any questions about the scheme.  Jo Gascoigne-Owens (Johanna.gascoigne-owens@ncl.ac.uk) or Beth Davidson (beth.davidson@ncl.ac.uk) will be happy to help with questions.